Babylon 5: A new beginning
by Nairda
Summary: 2233, Eight months after the fall of Omelos. A thorough study of the Dilgar war is finished and changes the forward looking strategy of the Earth Alliance. "This story changes the time line of the Babylon 5 universe after the Dilgar War."
1. Chapter 1

Author´s Note:

-This story changes the Babylon 5 time line since 2233, just after the Dilgar War. I will only keep Sinclair going into the past with a human Space Station (Not necessarily Babylon 4) and becoming Valen. Everything else will most probably change.

-I recommend reading The Dilgar War by Lord of Misrule. Not only it's a masterpiece, but I´ll base my story on many of the events that took place on that fanfict. You won´t need to read it thou to understand mine.

-The prologue and the first two chapters are going to be a 'little' dense in technical and background information. If it was my own story I could add that information as the story grows, but please understand that as I'm making a new Babylon 5 time line, many things including technology are going to change and I don't want people saying, "Hey this technology was like this not like that", so I'll be giving the whys and hows in the prologue and first few chapters.

-In some parts of the prologue I'll be using numbers (21347) in the dialogue because writing them (twenty one thousand three hundred and forty seven) will make those parts unbearable.

-Hope you like it.

**Prologue**

**Earth – Earth Alliance**

**Secondary Global Orbital Defence Command & Control Center**

**2233, Eight months after the fall of Omelos**

The main screen was showing an inbound jump vortex near the L4 Earth-Moon Lagrange point. Five ships emerged from it in an inverted "V" standard pentacan formation.

"Sir, long range sensors are detecting five ships. Optical arrays are vectoring in." said a sensor officer, while a secondary screen was showing an optical fix on 5 dots. Immediately the screen zoom to the dots, showing clearly the configuration of the vessels. "Sir, confirmed one Dilgar cruiser with two destroyers and two frigates as escort."

"Recon party," said General Alexei Denisov. "We knew they were coming people, so stay sharp."

A few hours back, heavy jamming of hyperspace probes, confirmed the presence of a significant force on approach to the Sol system. A few minutes earlier the loss of contact with several of the probes confirm that whomever was coming was already near the outer beacons. Now with a Dilgar recon pentacan in system, there were no doubts as to the offending force.

A few minutes later, hundreds of jump points illuminated the main screen and from each poured a Dilgar pentacan. "Sir reading nearly three thousand vessels bearing 117 mark 024 range seventy three thousand kilometers."

"Redeploy the fleet, position them near the satellites facing the enemy's fleet to provide interceptor fire and keep the Sagittarius well behind that screen. Order GODS behind those bearing 027 through 207 mark 294 through 114 on the opposite side of the planet to ripple fire all missiles."

The main screen showed 437 Global Orbital Defence Satellites or "GODS", some of them pretty old, distributed around Earth on a spherical configuration. All those satellites that were positioned behind the coordinates specified by the General, that were in opposite side of the planet in relation to the engaging fleet, started firing their missiles and in less than a minute more than 4000 thousand were on its way. Redeploying and behind the satellites was less than a Fleet strong of EA vessels. 12 Hyperions backed by 128 Artemis, 119 Oracles, 73 Sagittarius and 18 Avengers.

"Sir enemy ships are deploying fighters and are vectoring for the missiles,"

"Nothing we can do, they´ll buy us time to redeploy the fleet."

"Sir, I´m sorry to interrupt, but the President´s aide is on the line," said a communications officer

"Patch it through to my headset."

"Yes, Sir."

"Denisov here, ..., Yes no problem when? …, OK, Tell the President I´ll be there in 5 hours, …, Thanks Rosy, bye."

The General turned to see the Colonel in charge of the installation and said, "Cancel the drill. A need to go to Geneva. Please transfer all simulation results from the last 2 months to the EIA report." The Colonel nodded and he turn to the Lieutenant in charge of communications and added. "Have my shuttle ready for immediate departure, and tell them to prepare a flight plan to Geneva."

"Yes, Sir."

The simulation was cancelled and the screens returned to normal, but this time showing a heavily fortified defence grid.

**Geneva – Earth**

**EA Presidential Office**

**5 hours later**

President Dieter Hauser was reading a summary of known civilizations ordered by economic power, attached as annex of a Forward looking report on the future military spending requirements delivered by the EIA (Earth Intelligence Agency), just to get his bearings before the meeting with the EIA Director, The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Secretary of State. The annexed summary read:

...

Centauri Republic

Population: 42.21 billion

Worlds: 59

Economy: 2,688 TC

Defence spending: 4.7 percent (126.33 TC)

...

Earth Alliance

Population: 23.17 billion

Worlds: 38

Economy: 926.85 TC

Defence spending: 4 percent pre war, 12.3 percent current (readjusting to pre war levels)

...

Yolu Theocracy (League of Non-Aligned Worlds - LONAW)

Population: 6.8 billion

Worlds: 4

Economy: 357 TC

Defence spending: 6.2 percent (22.13 TC)

...

Narn Regime

Population: 7.9 billion

Worlds: 17

Economy: 185.65 TC

Defence spending: 29 percent (53.84 TC)

...

Brakiri Syndicracy (LONAW)

Population: 5.6 billion

Worlds: 5

Economy: 173.6 TC

Defence spending: 3.5 percent (6.08 TC)

...

Ventuki Conglomerate (LONAW)

Population: 3.6 billion

Worlds: 4

Economy: 117 TC

Defence spending: 5.4 percent (6.32 TC)

...

Markab Confederacy (LONAW)

Population: 4.3 billion

Worlds: 3

Economy: 77.4 TC

Defence spending: 4.8 percent (3.72 TC)

...

Drazi Freehold (LONAW)

Population: 6.9 billion

Worlds: 12

Economy: 72.45 TC

Defence spending: 17 percent (12.32 TC)

…

His intercom beeped and he activated the communications device and said, "Yes Rosy, what is it?"

"Sir, they have arrived. Shall I send them in?"

"Yes Rosy, please." said President Hauser cutting off his intercom and continued reading the summary.

...

Hyach Gerontocracy (LONAW)

Population: 1.3 billion

Worlds: 4

Economy: 56.55 TC

Defence spending: 5 percent (2.83 TC)

...

Abbai Matriarchy (LONAW)

Population: 4.2 billion

Worlds: 4

Economy: 52.5 TC

Defence spending: 6 percent (3.15 TC)

...

Cascor Commonwealth (LONAW)

Population: 3.6 billion

Worlds: 3

Economy: 39.6 TC

Defence spending: 4 percent (1.59 TC)

...

pak`ma`ra individualism (LONAW)

Population: 2.9 billion

Worlds: 1

Economy: 24.65 TC

Defence spending: 3.1 percent (764 GC)

...

_Ipsha Baronies_ (LONAW)

Population: 900 million

Worlds: 3

Economy: 13.95 TC

Defence spending: 4.2 percent (586 GC)

...

Balosians (LONAW)

Population: 1.3 billion

Worlds: 1

Economy: 5.85 TC

Defence spending: 2 percent (117 GC)

...

Llort Mi-Ma-Ti (LONAW)

Population: 530 million

Worlds: 2

Economy: 2.91 TC

Defence spending: 2.1 percent (61 GC)

...

Androma Republic (LONAW)

Population: 210 million

Worlds: 2

Economy: 1.15 TC

Defence spending: 3 percent (34.5 GC)

...

Descari Committees (LONAW)

Population: 79 million

Worlds: 2

Economy: 435 GC

Defence spending: 3.5 percent (18 GC)

...

Gaim Intelligence (LONAW)

Population: 130 billion (estimated)

Worlds: 1

Economy: n/a

Defence spending: n/a

…

The President was unable to continue reading the summary, because at that moment his aide open the door and three men entered the room.

"Welcome Gentlemen, please sit down," said the President pointing to a set of sofas, "Did you have a nice trip Alexei?"

"As good as can be expected." answered the general

"I´m sorry to interrupt your simulations and bring you here in such short notice, but the senate is convening ahead of schedule next week to discuss defence spending and this is our chance to keep a strong and healthy Earth Alliance.

"Don´t worry Dieter, we were just making extra simulations to confirm our findings."

"Great then, so? What do we have?"

Two months after the War, President Hauser commissioned the men in front of him to prepare a forward looking analysis that had the intention of determining the weaknesses and strengths of all governments involved in the war. It had to take into account their governments, fleets, defence spending, strategies, technologies, etc. and come with a solutions to help the Earth Alliance avoid falling into the same mistakes or better said avoid being wiped out as a civilization. Those solutions had to be reasonable in order for the senate to approve the spending. And now, after nearly six months of analysis they were gather again to share the results.

"Well to make it simple, we were victorious because we were very far away from the Dilgar to begin with and we also had sufficient time to build up our forces. 87 percent of our simulations ended in defeat, if Earth would have been Alaca or Balos and the remaining 13 percent ended in a stalemate in the time allotted for the simulation and they were not looking good, the last 13 percent had more than 90 percent of the fleet in Earth orbit to repel the initial assault. Not a healthy outcome." answered General Denisov

"Considering it was done by a civilization with an economy slightly bigger than the Markab and just to get things into perspective that's nearly ten times smaller than the Earth Alliance, it was a remarkable achievement and something that limits our options when dealing with bigger powers." added Karl Durban the EIA Director. "At least if they show the same strategic and tactical level as the Dilgar had."

"And how was that possible?" asked the President

"They had nearly a 40 percent military expenditure and 10 years of secret military build up. Don't get me wrong Mr. President. If we had done the same as the Dilgar and then you add conquered League industrial output, we would at this moment be closing our jump points far beyond Centauri space." answered Karl, " The problem is that if the Centauri decides to do the same, there be no one to stop them, not even if we find out about it and have a reasonable amount of time to prepare."

"So, you are saying that we could as well cross our arms and wait for the Centauri to knock us out?" asked the president with an inclined head and his eyebrows raised

"Nothing like that Mr. President. I was just pointing out the fact that if we would have been engaged by a power stronger than what the Dilgar were, but with the same level of military spending and the same secret military build up, like the Centauri or the Narns and even some League members and, and I emphasize the and, we had the same level of military spending we had before the war. We would have had our asses handed over in a silver platter." answered Karl in a very clear voice.

"OK then, so what are you proposing in your report, I was barely able to scratch the summary." said the president looking at the datapad in his hands.

"As you already know the report was produced in close cooperation with the Joint Chiefs and the Secretary of State. You´ll find every analysis, simulations, field reports and all required annexes from which we reached the conclusion perfectly explain in the report." said Karl

"I know I will. Lets keep this simple and to the point. I trust that the recommendations you are bringing have been thoroughly studied." said Dieter

Karl gather his thoughts and started, "Everything in this report," said Karl putting a hand on top of his datapad´s screen and taking a deep breath, "requires a defence spending of 9 percent."

"9 percent!" said the president with a shocked face and then turned to look at the Secretary of State, "Harry, what is the senate stand on defence spending?"

"They are pushing to return to the pre war 4 percent, but if we play it right, I thinks they´ll go for it. There are many industrial and economic incentives to the plan, so I think it´s a strong one." said Harry Brogan, the Secretary of State.

"It is still more than double. I really think you are pushing too much with this." said the president with a concerned face and then turned to see Karl Durban, "OK Karl let´s see what you got."

"The report is divided into six areas of work." He linked his datapad with the other ones so that they were all able to see what he was doing with his, "They are the following, with the required percentage in defence spending." and the datapad displayed:

1.- Global Orbital Defence (1 percent)

2.- Fighter and Military Garrison (1 percent)

3.- Fleet (2 percent)

4.- Mothball Fleet (2 percent)

5.- Planetary Exploration and Colonization (1 percent)

6.- Motherships (2 percent)

"Number one, two and three, are strictly military in nature and represent the four percent the senate in seeking. Number four is in support of the fleet but will invest heavily in infrastructure and that will help our overall economy. Number five and six are for civilization expansion but that will strength our overall fleet strength and our industrial and population redundancy. Let me explain each one."

"The Global Orbital Defence network is required as a fixed method of denying our enemies access to local space. Specifically space close to our population centers. The defences at the Abbai and Hyach homeworlds and to a lesser extend that of the Brakiri clearly demonstrated this. To give an example, 1 percent of our actual economy will give a annual budget of 9.26 Tera Credits for our Global Orbital Defence. Considering that Earth alone represents nearly 90 percent of our economy. The Defence grid on Earth will have 8.33 Tera credits per year."

"Now, with the actual cost of a GOD satellite at 12 Giga credits which includes production, a one hundred year maintenance budget and a research and development percentage, we could field nearly 700 per year. In one hundred years, when we will need to start replacing the first ones, we will have a defence grid on Earth with nearly 70,000 satellites. That's a 50 percent bigger defence grid than that deployed by the Abbai, the current strongest defence grid in existence."

"And do we need such a strong defence grid?" asked the President

"Well, my example was for Earth, which is currently the most heavily populated planet in the known galaxy and the single largest planetary economy. If we were to compare it to the Abbai, we are only investing one fifth of what they are using. Our colonies will still have one percent of their economic output devoted for their defence grid, but our biggest colony will not have 70,000 GOD satellites. It may be able to deploy at the most 1,300 of them after one hundred years of construction."

"OK, I get it, and I don´t think it will be too hard to sell." The president continued reading his pad and added. "I think the information in the report is more than enough to do it. Please continue Karl."

"Of course. The second point, the one the report shows as Fighter and Military Garrison, will require a heavy change in philosophy. All major powers maintain a heavy deterrence in ground forces, but the Dilgar showed that they were useless to orbital bombardment. Also the Dilgar showed us that on those occasions that they were prevented from gaining space superiority. The ground forces were useless again as they never entered combat. Only when we struck back that the ground forces became useful. Now, as we don´t have the intention of going into a conquering war, the point of keeping such a big ground force is pointless."

"We want to considerably reduce the number of ground units. Using Earth as an example again, we have the intention of reducing the actual 21,000,000 troops to a little more than 4,000,000. Now, we all know that we have try to keep one soldier for every one thousand people on the planet, and while we currently have a very strong military presence it has always been inferior than those deployed by other races. Specially the Narn and the Drazi which keep that relation to less than a hundred to one. In simple terms, they have ten times the ground forces per population than we do. Decreasing our ground forces even further may not be seen as a wise move unless we make each and every single troop, more lethal than one hundred of those fielded by other major powers."

"Uh huh, and how do you plan on making our troops that powerful?"

"Easy, we don´t allow enemy troops to land on our planets by engaging them in space before they land. How?, well, let me give you an example again using Earth. Using 1 percent of our economy and 90 percent belonging to Earth, we have 8.33 Tera credits available per year. If we create a unit that has four people, each a hybrid pilot-engineer-gropo and assigned this four guys to an endo-exo atmospheric fighter with an estimated life of 50 years. The cost of constructing the fighter and operating the unit is estimated at 400 Mega credits per fifty years. That will allow us to produce nearly 21,000 fighters per year and a total fighter garrison on Earth after fifty years, of approximately 1,040,000 fighters and by having four people assigned to each fighter, gives us a total of more than 4,000,000 pilot-engineer-gropos."

"How will this work? Well we definitely can´t operate that many fighters with one percent of our economy. So the intention is having the fighters in storage and train the crew in simulators. They won´t be aces, but will allow our planets to field a huge space capable force. Even if the fighters are not armed with nukes, they will still yield a combined fire power greater than what the combined Dilgar fleets had."

"So you are telling me, that you will train each recruit to operate a fighter, to maintain it and to fight in the ground if necessary? So why do you need four?" asked the President

General Denisov answered, "Its simple. While the fighters will be in storage, we need to keep each unit combat ready. That means having them twenty four seven, all year round. That's why we need four people per fighter. We will be keeping some of those units fully operational and on patrol duty. We believe we could have at least twenty thousand fighters either on patrol or ready to launch in thirty minutes and in case of an emergency, we could have the remaining fighters ready within a day."

"The budget for each unit includes, salaries, fuel and ammunition stocks, simulators, four hours of real flying training per year, one per recruit, which I know its not enough, but we´ll compensate it with one hour per day on simulators, and the production of the fighter itself." finished the General.

"I know it does give us an awesome amount of fire power with little investment, but I don´t know if the Senate will like us to produce thousands of fighters per year just to get them into a warehouse." said the President

This time it was Harry who answered, "I´ll have to disagree. From a military point of view, we will actually have a far smaller force in operation, even though our active reserves will be far far bigger. But on an economic point of view, we´ll have factories producing and enormous amount of fighters, which translate into a lot of permanent jobs, which will be seen with good eyes to the majority of the Senators."

"The problem we have for the moment and that will delay the implementation of this strategy, is our lack of an exo-endo atmospheric fighter. As you know the Nova class starfury is not atmosphere capable and making the modification to allow it to reach orbit and return will take at least a year. The intention is to designing an air breathing engine pod, that will be mounted just behind the cockpit, with two small air intakes on its side. This will give the Nova in combination with its plasma engines, sufficient power to reach orbit, but will not make it an atmosphere capable fighter." added the Alexei

"Once we have this running, we´ll have a very big fighter force to call upon in times of crisis, not to mention that we'll have a very strong fighter production capability. One single year of production will churn out more fighters than we lost in the entire Dilgar war." Said Karl

"OK, Gentlemen. I trust your judgement. Please lets continue." said President Hauser.

Karl straighten up and said, "I´ll like to explain point three and four together. Fleet and Mothball Fleet. We are assigning 4 percent in total for both of them. Now. The 4 percent gives us approximately 37 Tera credits to work with and to compare apples to apples, let's say we have that money and invest it in the traditional way, and to make matters simpler let's say we only invest in Nova Dreadnoughts, which have a unit cost of 96 Giga credits."

" Uh huh."

"A Nova dreadnought costs nearly 2 percent per year of its production to operate. So, in 50 years we would double the price of the ship. An in its expected life time of one hundred years, it will triple. So for every unit, we need to consider two thirds of our budget for operational costs. If we take one third of 37 Tera credits and divide that by the cost of the ship. We'll be able to produce a total of 128 Nova class dreadnoughts per year. For a total fleet after one hundred years of production of 12,800 vessels. A very powerful fleet, but no ships in reserve and a production capability of 128 vessels per year."

"Uh huh."

"That's the traditional way. Now, What we are proposing is using half our budget in the traditional way, which will give us 6,400 vessels after one hundred years of production. No reserves and a 64 vessel production capability. We then use the other half exclusively for producing ships. That will give us 192 ships per year and 19,200 vessels in reserve after one hundred years. Summing all up. We'll have a fleet at the end of one hundred years of production of 6,400 vessels deployed and operational. 19,200 vessels in reserve and 256 ships in production. While this will give us half the operational fleet of the traditional method. It will also give us twice the number of total ships available and twice the production capacity." finished Karl

"It also gives us a much younger fleet. With 256 vessels produced each year. It will only take us 25 years to reach 6,400 vessels of the operational fleet. So ships will start entering mothballs reserve after just 25 years of operation, with the same age for our oldest vessel." added the General.

"There is also one more thing that the Dilgar war brought to bear. The time required to ramp up production. We engaged the Dilgar two years after the start of the war, and we took that time to build ships on our idle shipyards, and investing in new ones. We came close to investing twenty five percent of our economy, but it took nearly three years to have our production facilities ready to mass produce ships and weapons. If we had been facing the Dilgar from the star of the war. We would have had our reserves consume by attrition, before our economy could have made a difference." said Karl

"That's why, we propose to start investing the Fleet's budget, to construct ships for operational use, but we intent to use the Mothball Fleet's budget to invest first in shipyards that are able to handle twenty five percent of our budget and place them in mothballs. We then take that budget to construct ships." added Karl

"OK, I didn't get that. What do you mean by shipyards that can handle twenty five percent of our economy." said the President

"Its simple. If we were to engage in a total war again. Maybe even in one that is bigger than what we faced with the Dilgar. We are going to be able to invest maybe thirty percent of our economy, without wreaking havoc to it. Now, as I already explained, we just can't go and say 'Hey here, I have more money, give me more ships'. We need to develop the infrastructure in order to build them. Our proposed budget contemplates three percent for ship building. One percent from the Fleet budget and two percent from the Mothball Fleet budget. If we also take aside Global Orbital Defence and Fighter and Military Garrison budgets. We may have up to twenty five percent of our economy ready to help us in a war, but with no industry to channel those resources, there is little it will do to help us. That's why we propose to use the Mothball Fleet budget to first build a reserve ship building production capacity that could handle those excess resources." answered Karl

"But that will also cost a fortune to maintained and I don't see anything in this report that contemplates that."

"No, Because we intend to use the same shipyards. In times of peace, every shipyard will be building vessels at a much slower pace, a little more than ten percent of capacity, than what we´ll be able to do in times of war." answered the General

"That will reduce the efficiency of the shipyards and drive up the cost of ships produced during peace time." said the President

"Yes and No. If you take into account the cost of the shipyard and divide it into the number of ships it produces, then yes. But then you could say the same for the ships produce by the Mothball fleet budget. They will only operate for twenty five years instead of one hundred before being sent to the reserves. But the point is that this whole research was done for the survival of humanity in future wars. We'll be investing on things that will guarantee that, but that will not necessarily be efficient unless a war breaks out. At that moment every credit expended to build our defences and industrial muscle will be felt by anyone who wishes to face us. Now returning to the shipyard. It will definitely be more expensive to build, but if we take that as an investment for our future, then the cost of producing ships in them during peace time will be the same in raw materials and man hours." said the General

"Don't get me wrong. I understand your point. But wouldn't this be seen as an aggressive posture from the Earth Alliance?"

"Not necessarily. The defence grid and fighter and military garrison are defensive in nature. While the fleet and mothball fleet's four percent budget is well within the range being invested by other empires and far below that being invested by the Narn's twenty nine percent and the Drazi's seventeen." Answered Harry.

"OK. Who's making the presentation to the Senate?"

"I am, but I'll be showing a lot of comparative simulations to gain their backup" said Karl

"I wish you luck. You are going to need it."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence Dieter."

The president smiled and continued, "OK. Let's continue."

Karl took a look to his pad before continuing, "OK. Planetary Exploration and Colonization. We are adding this point to the Earth Alliance's defensive requirements because of our precarious population and industrial distribution. Our name says it all. We are called the Earth Alliance not the Human Alliance or the Terran Alliance or the Interstellar Alliance or the Whatever Alliance. And even thou we have a healthy number of colonies. We still have ninety percent of our population on Earth. That's nearly 21 billion in one planet against 2.3 billion in thirty seven. We lose Earth and the rest of our colonies are not better than a low level LONAW member"

"We have been unable to find suitable planets for colonization. Only Orion VII and to a lesser extent Proxima III are close in quality to Earth. Some of the other colonies have a breathable atmosphere, but the majority are planets with similar gravity to Earth, but with domed cities."

"We want to use our ships in peacetime to do just that. Find new planets suitable for colonization and send ships to build infrastructure and move colonists. As you know our Fleets are composed of Novas, Hyperions, Avengers, Oracles, Sagittarius, Artemis, Olympuses and Tethys. We have ships for every type of operation required but almost no multi purpose ones, except the Hyperions, which are not suitable for the task at hand."

"We need a jump capable ship, that is able to carry the necessary equipment to build the infrastructure required by the colonist being moved, and at the same time to be able to cover all military requirements in time of war. We have one vessel that can cover all requirements in times of war and that is the Hyperion, but it doesn't come close to what we need in peace time. We are proposing to redesign the Nova dreadnought, and make it a multi purpose vessel."

"Military speaking, the Nova only requires a redesigned defence grid in order to allow it to operate without escorts, and a better fuel capacity to extend its range. For peace time duty, the Nova already has the ability to carry a full division of troops and its heavy equipment, which is more than enough space for colonization infrastructure and transport requirements."

"This will make the navy a peacetime Juggernaut. It will reduce our overhead burden of keeping so many designs in operation. It will allow us to concentrate research and development efforts into a single unit type, instead of half a dozen, It will allow us to field a little more than the six thousand four hundred vessels for the operational fleet. We could have a fleet rounding nearly nine thousand ships."

"So the intention is to use the budget, to increase the number of vessels in operation, and use them for two purposes. One to find new systems suitable for colonization or resource gathering and Two, to move colonists to those planets that are already suitable. We intend to use our ships to build the infrastructure required by the new colonists, making it an attractive proposition for people to move away from Earth, because we really need to balance the distribution of population and economy into other planets, to be less dependant on Earth."

"OK, I don't see any inconveniences with this one. What about Motherships?" asked the President

"We have a way, through our Fleet and reserves, to keep any future enemies outside of Earth Alliance space. We should have a sufficiently strong force to even gain space superiority on enemy space, but we have to look into all possibilities, and one of them is that our Fleets could be defeated. If that happens we should have a sufficiently strong planetary defence grid and fighter garrison to make any attack on our colonies prohibitively expensive, forcing a superior enemy into a stalemate. But we must also consider the possibility that we may face an enemy far stronger than our fleets and planetary defences can handle, even an enemy with the intention of completely wiping us out. That's were our Mothership budget comes up." said Karl

"If we have a completely self sufficient mobile space habitat or Mothership, orbiting any planet in our space, and we were to be attacked by an overwhelming force. The Mothership will simple escape through hyperspace and settle itself in another planet for resource gathering, even an uncharted one. This enemy could wipe out our fix planetary populations, but our civilization will continue its existence in highly industrialized Motherships with sufficient population to viably settle ourselves in another area of the galaxy and start again."

"Our Orion class space stations are not mobile. If we make the station self-sufficient it will have sufficient space for only eight thousand people. To make a mothership viable, we are looking for starters into populations that run above a quarter million to a million. A mobile self sufficient space station of that size will have at least one hundred times the mass of a Nova class Dreadnought. And our budget will allow us to construct maybe three units per year at the most."

"But, apart of making our civilization more survivable. Having Motherships will allow us to use every single planet for resource gathering. If we had the resources and the population we could have billions of them deployed in the billions of planets not suitable of colonization, making our expansion completely independent of habitable planets."

Karl placed his data pad in the table and said, "That concludes the presentation. What do you think Dieter?"

The President kept looking at his pad and smiled. "Well, your presentation sucked, but I think the proposal is good." and they all started laughing. "We'll have to present this to the senate before next week's meeting and hope they see it our way. If Harry is right and they want to reduce the budget to the precarious pre war level, you'll have a tough fight ahead of you. I suggest playing this to their likings. Don't force the military matter too much as they already consider us invincible. Try to focus more on the economic rain fall of this investments. I thinks they'll consider it a better proposal if you do that."

"Don't worry Dieter. It won't suck like this presentation. We have prepared a very thorough one. It includes a visual presentation of the simulations, including military and economic ones. I believe they'll like it. I just hope they like it as I do."

"I hope that too. Well gentleman that'll be all."

**Geneva – Earth**

**EA Presidential Office**

**One week later …**

"Congratulations people. You made it. You have secured our place in the Galaxy." The president then turned to see Karl and added, "Karl, that was quite a presentation you pulled out of your sleeve. Really commendable."

"Thanks Dieter. I would have liked that they had agreed to the whole budget, but I think we can manage the changes."

The Senate agreed to the entire proposal but with some conditions and changes. The Fighter and Military garrison budget would be given a go once they have developed a fighter capable of both endo and exo atmospheric flight, even if it's an upgrade. The use of the mothball fleet budget to first create a shipbuilding capability to handle a war level military expenditure was not authorized, but instead relegated to be added to the future Motherships capabilities. New ship building budget that included one percent from fleet and two percent from mothball fleet will be given the go ahead once the Nova class had been upgraded to a multi purpose vessel.

"Yes," said Harry "But at least we have the nine percent secured. The percentage not being assigned yet, will be use for rebuilding the League and will not be compromised for other essential projects. We are not going to have to fight for them later."

"And that is what we fought for." added Denisov

"There were several other concerns you had about the Dilgar war, that could affect us in the future Karl. What were them?"

"Our main concern was to secure this budget, to guarantee our defence in any future war. But there are several subjects that could become an issue in the future and should be addressed. You know the reports on this new race. The Drahk. They were very efficient at infiltrating the Dilgar Leadership and are believed to be primarily responsible for many of the atrocities committed by them. The problem is that we know nothing of them, only that they are advanced, because of the technologies we know they provided to the Dilgar. Including the spectre's cloak, armor, computers, weapons, most notably those crust busting missiles, among other things. There are many races," he paused and added "or things out there that we don't know. And if we are susceptible for infiltration, we can be destroyed from within."

"It's a risk we have to take Karl."

"Not necessarily."

"What do you mean?"

"We need two things. One, a way of detecting infiltrators and Two, if we can't detect them then make the system immune to infiltration to the best of our abilities."

"What do you propose."

"You will laugh for what I have to say, But I'll say it any way. We need to disband the Psicorps and integrate their intelligence assets into the EIA."

All started laughing but Karl. "You of everybody, is asking to have Psicorps melded to the EIA. You hate them Karl."

"I don't hate them. I just don't trust them."

"So why do you want them with you."

"Every year, more and more people are gaining psychic abilities. We have such a great mistrust in them that we hunt them down and place them in the Psicorps. But the reality is that our race is evolving. If part of our growth is developing psychic powers, then we must learn to live with it. We should start to integrate them into our society. Allow them to decide what to do for themselves. If they want to be Marines, Fleet officers, or just sit around in their houses to drink beer. They should have the choice. Otherwise, it will tear apart our society in the future. We'll have so many groups struggling for power just to have the means to defend their positions, that it will be very easy for someone to influence or infiltrate another group, just with the promise of a better future."

"So you want all Psicorp's agents in the EIA"

"Hell no! They'll need to apply for what they want. Those that select the EIA we'll be screened as everyone else. We need to stop this internal power struggle with different organization but with the same objectives. I strongly believe that well train psychic agents will be an excellent asset for the EIA, and the same applies for all government organizations."

"OK, and how do you intend to make the system immune to infiltration."

"Well. If we understand that no system can be thoroughly protected from outside influence. We can avoid the arrogance of many of our government officials, that think that they are all powerful, and stablish a set of security algorithms to avoid double agendas or agents."

"Also. We need to change our form of government. We need to get out of this boom-bust cycles that comes with every change in presidency. We need to create a type of government that is not linked to a party. We need a government linked to sectors in our society. We select, I don't know, ten of the best candidate for every sector, the best not the most popular, for Defence, Health, Transportation, Intelligence, Tourism, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, and they make decisions as a hole body. If you have for example ten sectors and ten councillors per sector, you will have a one hundred strong ruling council."

"I don't think that'll be possible Karl, and I'm not saying that because I'm the President and I don't want to lose power. After what we went through with the Dilgar, I'll give it back without giving it a second thought. But the infrastructure all ready in place does not come cheap, and I don't think anybody will be voting positively on that change."

"I wasn't suggesting making the change from one day to the other, nor was I seeking the replacement of our infrastructure. We have many colonies. We can test this on a local government in a new colony. We can even test it in our Motherships once we have them. After that, if every thing goes well we can slowly implement it to the entire Alliance. Every planet will have his own independent government for local administration purposes. They'll even handle Local Orbital Defence and Fighter and Military garrison budgets, but we create another government for all the planets, which could handle fleet, mothball fleet, exploration and colonization and Mothership construction budgets."

"So you are seeking to change us from a representative democratic republic, into a meritocratic federation?"

"Yes, We already are a Federation on Earth, but we don't give the same status to our colonies."

"I see your point Karl, and I like the idea of a Federation. It will eliminate the head ache from all the colonies with separatist movements. Now how do you intend to select our leaders for their merits. How will you quantify their Merits?"

"With tests. Very thorough tests, and proven experience in the sector."

They continued talking about how they were going to implement the authorized budget and how to start testing Karl's ideas for the internal protection of the Earth Alliance.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note:

-This is another background chapter. It deals mostly with technology development. Please hold on, the story is coming.

Devaro Ayanami Beta's note:

-I'm sure some might find all this technobabble confusing or boring, but bear in mind this is an Alternate Universe, and some of the things that happen down the line are going to be different from the original series. These chapters here at the beginning give background for those changes, and allow the author to keep the Tech-speak to a slightly lower level later on.

**Chapter One**

**Earth – Earth Alliance**

**Earthforce Research and Development Division**

**October 10, 2233**

"OK people. Please be seated. We have a lot to cover today." said Dr. Masaru Shouri, Head of Earthforce Research and Development Division. He was standing near the main presentation screen, which was currently displaying the name of the division, with the logo of the Earth Alliance in the background. "As you all know, Earthforce has been granted a permanent and constitutionally binded budget of nine percent of the Gross Alliance Product. Research and Development had been assigned with eight percent of that budget or point seventy two percent of the Gross Alliance Product " he pressed a button and the main screen displayed logo was replaced by the research subdivisions.

"Our research will be divided into four Main subdivisions with several joint secondary support subdivisions. In order of importance, they are the following," he said while pointing to the first main subdivision in the screen, "Warship Subdivision with fifty five point five percent of the research budget. Mothership Subdivision with twenty two point two percent. Defence Satellite Subdivision with eleven point one percent and Fighter Subdivision with eleven point one percent."

He pressed a button and the screen changed to Support Secondary Subdivisions, "Earthforce has placed a new directive in procurement programs. They require that every single design gets the most out of it. We are not going to design two reactors when we can have one. Every design must be kept with this parameter in mind. If a Nova Dreadnought uses four reactors, we may use, for example, one of the same type of reactor for a defence satellite and, I don't know, maybe twenty for a mothership. The intention is to make the most for every design so that we can make bigger leaps in technology development by investing in other projects."

"We are initiating with eight support secondary subdivisions, they are, Energy systems, Propulsion systems, Detection and Navigation systems, Offensive systems, Defensive systems, Data processing systems, Life support systems and ground combat systems. If the need arises we'll add more support subdivisions as necessary."

He extended his arm with an open hand to one of the Doctors seated in the front. "Doctor Douglas McCluskey, will be head of Warship Subdivision." He moved his arm to a second Doctor, but kept looking to the rest of the assembly, "Doctor Caroline Ohrn, will be head of Mothership Subdivision," He pointed to another doctor, "Doctor Inder Lloyd, will head Defensive Satellite Subdivision." He pointed to the last Doctor, "and Doctor Alex van Trotsenburg, will head Fighter Subdivision."

"Every Subdivision head will be appointing one of you to the post of management representative, one for every Support Secondary Subdivision, you will report directly to your corresponding head and your task will be to guarantee that your division's requirements are met by the support secondary subdivision's programs."

Dr. Shouri continued explaining for several minutes the new procedures that were to take place in Earthforce Research and Development Division and answered several questions, before dismissing everyone but the heads of subdivisions. He directed the Doctors to an adjacent meeting room, were they all seated around a relatively small round table.

"As I've already said. Earthforce has been granted a nine percent budget, but only three percent has been assigned. We are still restructuring our force structure after the war and we still have a healthy budget, but it will slowly decrease to that three percent if we don't pick up the pace in essential procurement programs. So let's assign priorities and then we'll start from there to assign new directives. We require to upgrade the Nova Dreadnought into a Multi purpose vessel, We need to make the Nova class starfury able to reach orbit, handle stress of re-entry and to be able to land in a gravity environment, and a mothership design able to be fielded in less than a year."

"Impossible! Masaru, there is no way I'm going to be able to deliver a mothership design in one year. Ten maybe, one impossible." Caroline said, but was stopped by the raised hand of Dr. Shouri.

"I know, and we'll not deliver a one-million-people-in-capacity-self-sufficient-mothership. The problem is Earthforce can't wait ten years for a design. It will lose two percent of the Gross Alliance Product budget, and that is a hell of lot of credits, and more if you make that by ten years. Also the Joint Chiefs are not happy that the senate rejected their proposal of shipbuilding industrial backup capacity. Now the good thing, is that they allowed Earthforce to integrate that capacity into any Mothership design. We are going to use any resources we have available to do just that." he paused and looked at the Swedish Doctor and added. "Caroline, We need a self-sufficient Mothership with enough population capacity to make it viable, with an integrated shipbuilding function, and that we are able to build in sufficient quantities so that they are able to handle a twenty five percent war budget by the time the new mothership design is available. And it has to enter production in one year at the most. What do we have developed that we can meld together to accomplish this?"

"I hate you. You know that right? Am I in time to quit?"

Masaru laughed, "Yeah, sure you can quit, but after you give me a solution." he smiled to her and added, "Come on Caroline, I know you love this. That's why I selected you for this post."

She smiled back, "Did I say I hate you? God you know me too well. OK I'll do it." she took a deep breath and looked to the ceiling before lowering her head again. "What is the minimum population Earthforce will consider to make the station viable?"

"At least thirty thousand, and that will be pushing it too low." Said Dr. Shouri

She thought for a moment before answering, "I'll require to join four Orion Class Space Stations." she was resting her head on her left hand with her elbow on the table and in deep thought. "We could remove the hangar section and install a propulsion unit, and let that structure prolong all the way through the four stations and beyond. We can join the Orions with magnetic bearings to this structure and have them counter rotating in relation to each other. This way we can eliminate asymmetrical torque. This will give us a mobile self-sufficient space station with thirty two thousand people." she paused again before continuing, "How many Novas could you produce per year with the extra twenty five percent war budget?"

"A little more than two thousand four hundred extra vessels per year."

"OK. Let's say it takes me twelve years to develop a one million population capacity mothership, and I have one year to design this one. That'll give us eleven years to build it. If I estimate the cost of this station at four times an Orion, then we could build twelve of them per year with the Mothership budget. That's a total of one hundred and thirty two." she continued making numbers with her datapad calculator and added. "We'll have to build eighteen novas on each station per year, and I haven't place the cost of installing an eighteen ship strong shipyard and manufacturing capacity. It can't be done Masaru."

"There must be a way Caroline."

She was looking at the table in deep thought, after a few seconds, she looked up again and said, "We could compromise."

"What do you mean?"

"We know that it took us nearly three years to ramp up production to reach twenty five percent budget capacity during the Dilgar War. If we have one hundred and thirty two of this stations. I could design a shipyard from standard models with an eighteen ship slot capacity and the required industrial facilities to build them, to be place in front of the station as an add on, but never built. If we are at war. All the stations could immediately start using the war budget to start building this shipbuilding add on, which could be ready to start producing warships between six and eight months of the start of a war."

"There must be another way."

"Yes, but we'll have to reduce the population capacity from thirty two thousand to eight thousand and use a single modified Orion."

"No that won't work. Eight thousand are too few to sell it to the senate."

"I don't see another way. Every other option will require a lot of research and testing. Impossible to achieve in one year."

"We'll have to compromise then. Give it a priority. I'll talk to the Joint Chiefs, we'll see if they prefer a smaller number of motherships with full shipbuilding capabilities, or the one hundred and thirty two with the compromised solution."

"OK. I'll get on with it, as soon as we finish this meeting."

"OK. Douglas. About the Nova Dreadnoughts: You already know that we need an enhanced defence grid to replace its escorts, and we need to give it a range at least thirty percent superior than our Hyperions. Also the Joint Chiefs are complaining about fire arcs. They would like, all of the plasma cannons able to fire on the forward arc. Any ideas."

"Yes, We started working on a solution since you informed us last week. Range can only be increased with fuel capacity, as we don't expect considerable increases in efficiency, because the Nova's plasma engines are state of the art. As you know the Nova is divided in six blocks, the engine, reactor and fuel tank block at the rear, followed by two missile blocks, each with twenty four missiles, followed by the command and control and housing block, followed by another twenty four missile block and followed by the hangar and sensors block."

He passed his Data pad to Masaru. It contained the schematics of the Nova compared to what would be the Nova II and added, "As you can see, the Command block on the Nova is a little bigger than the missile blocks. We want to increase the size of the missile blocks, to the same size of the command block on the Nova II. That will give us enough space to add a fuel tank that goes all the way from the engine block to the forward missile block. Those modifications are easy to make, including the one on the command block. The amount of space added will allow us to nearly double the fuel capacity and increase range by more than fifty percent compared to the Hyperion."

He extended his hand and touched a button in his data pad and Masaru could see a new page that showed weapon rearrangement, again compared to the standard Nova, "The Nova has four dual plasma cannons on each missile block, two dual plasma cannons on the command block, and four dual plasma cannons and two plasma mortars on the hangar block. As you can see of the eighteen dual plasma cannons only eight can fire through the forward arc. Now check the Nova two. The rear missile block guns are now mounted on higher support structures, the rearmost block has the guns near the corners but mounted on the starboard and port sides without obtruding the missile launchers, while the block that follows has the guns near the corners but mounted on the dorsal and ventral sides. No gun blocks another from firing. The forward missile block and the command block have the same configuration but on lower mounts. The hangar block is unchanged. We are actually adding two more dual plasma guns, and all twenty can fire through the forward arc."

He straighten up in his chair and continued, "As you already know, the Nova's reactors can generate a total of 90.05 Peta watts of power, but only forty eight percent can be used by the weapons systems without compromising plasma generation. The forward Plasma mortars can channel the entire plasma output of the reactors in two, 10.8 Peta Joule bolts per second for each gun. While the dual plasma cannons can fire four bolts per second for the whole dual arrangement with a power output for each bolt of 3.6 Peta Joules. That gives the ship enough plasma output to operate just three dual plasma guns, without the use of the plasma mortars. That is why the eight forward firing guns of the Nova were enough in a constant fire situation, but considerably compromised its alpha strike capability even with the two second firing capacitors, requiring that the vessel cut its engines and reposition itself to open up the arcs of the other guns. With the Nova II, the ship will be able to keep its forward momentum while firing all guns in an Alpha strike, and either continue firing with three guns or recharge again all weapons for another Alpha strike and with the two second firing capacitor for every gun and plasma mortars, that's a 662 Peta Joules, two second long, Alpha Strike. Even if it takes a full fifteen seconds to charge all guns and weapon capacitors, there isn't a single known vessel out there that can resist that kind of punishment, guaranteeing victory for every one on one engagement."

Douglas made a hand gesture to Masaru to advance another page of the data pad and continued, "We are keeping the same E-Web system, but we are considerably increasing the number of Mark two defence grid energy projectors from eighteen to seventy two. Twenty deployed on top of the dual plasma cannons, ten on the hangar block, eight on each of the missile blocks, the same number on the command block, and ten on the engine block. This configuration gives the Nova II, a total of thirty interceptors able to fire on the forward arc, compared to the eight on the Nova, and the rest can start firing thirty degrees from the forward vector. Now, if we add the thirty six fighters it already had, I believe that with the added modifications we'll make the Nova II a very good and powerful multi purpose vessel."

"And the Joint Chiefs will love it." added Masaru, while returning the data pad to Douglas. He turned to Dr. Alex van Trotsenburg and said, "Alex?"

"It'll be a simple upgrade. We don't expect any major modifications. The structure can perfectly handle re-entry stresses and heat. We'll use a commercial air breathing engine, so the only design we have to make, is the engine mount and connection node, which shouldn't take more than four months. The engine pod will be easy to dismount for starship based fighters, so those on fleet deployment won't have their performance reduced. The pod will include its fuel supply, and will only be used for space access and the terminal stages of atmospheric re entry, and even though we don't need it, it is designed with enough power and fuel to be able to take off and land from a one point eight gravity planet, so it shouldn't have a problem in any of our colonies."

"Great then. That settles our primary development requirements. Lets continue with our secondary requirements. Earthforce is giving us no time constrains for the moment, but I can guarantee you, that us soon as we finish with the priority developments, they will start pressing us with results, so lets be ready for them. The entire second phase of development is centered in the fact that the Dilgar war showed that our long range engagement strategy is flawed. Currently we rely on missiles and fighters for our long range punch. Our actual Global Orbital Defence Satellites, use missiles for this requirement and plasma cannon for short range work. Our simulations and several engagements during the war showed that if an unmovable defensive position launched missiles to engage enemy forces at long ranges, it gives the enemy enough time to re enter hyperspace, recharge their engines and returned, making our missiles a very expensive show of fireworks and if we launch them in small numbers to avoid this, they are easier to intercept and destroy."

He stood up and stretch himself and started walking around the table speaking, "We captured a lot of technology on wreckages during the war, that suits this requirements perfectly, but it will take a lot of time to study them and develop prototypes, so Earthforce is going for a very well known and tested Earth Alliance technology so solve this problem, even though a bit cumbersome. We are to devote our resources in developing a very long range and powerful Particle Cannon, based on our particle accelerators. It has to be able to out range the longest range weapon known to us. The Hyach Spinal Laser. Why? Because if it doesn't, and we encounter an enemy with a similar weapon system, they just have to stay beyond our weapons range and snipe us at a distance."

He went back to his seat and continued, "Earthforce wants this weapon system able to be integrated into Defence Satellites, Warships and Motherships. It has to be designed as the backbone of our orbital defence systems, able to be fitted into a Nova dreadnought in replacement of the plasma mortars and installed in movable turrets for our Motherships. Now, as you already know, plasma based weaponry dissipate with distance travelled, but particle weapons don't. They will lose the energy containment field used to make a coherent stream of particles, but the particles will continue travelling until they hit an obstacle. So we could make a small weapon and still be able to hit a target at long ranges, so the real problem is in our detection, tracking and engagement capability. Again, the technology we captured in the Dilgar War in the way of Hyach and Abbai sensors and computer systems, could solve this problem, but it will take years to be able to understand that technology, and decades to implement it, so again we are stuck in finding a solution in good old Earth Alliance technology.

"The Dilgar were able to jam our transmissions and sensor systems, but that wasn't a concern, because, when we got in range of our weapons, our systems were strong enough to detect them, but if we would have been using long range weapon systems, without internal sensors as a missile or fighter, we would have been blinded. So, what do we have to solve that? In short nothing. Our sensors, even state of the art, are relatively easy to jam at long ranges. We would need very big and powerful sensors to solve this, and that wouldn't guarantee a solution. The only unjamable sensor systems we had during the war, were our passive Electromagnetic Spectrum, Search and Track systems or EMS/ST. They detect radio, microwave, infra red, visible, ultra violet, x-ray and Gamma ray emissions.

"The problem with almost all passive sensors, is the difficulty to precisely identify a target's position through triangulation, because the triangle at long distances is very long and thin and that makes it difficult to precisely determine the angles of the detected target. We can search for emissions and we can track their relative range and speed, but we can't lock to a target. We could fire, but we'll most likely miss at those ranges. The solution we are suggesting to Earthforce, is to increase the base of the triangle to make lock on targets at long ranges possible. So, we are going to use a kind of interlinked interferometry. We are going to use the sensors of all units in a given area to allow for precision triangulation. Obviously, this will be useless for single units, or small numbers of closely packed units, but still, it's a solution until we can design and deploy a better type of sensor system. We have to create the EMS/STL or Electromagnetic Spectrum, Search, Track and Lock system."

"So, our support secondary subdivisions will focus on upgrading the EMS/ST into the EMS/STL, and on creating a Heavy Particle Cannon. We'll talk about the specifications later. Of our Subdivisions, only Fighter Subdivision will not intervene in the secondary requirements, but Warship Subdivision, has to focus on the Nova III, which will deploy the new particle cannons, in replacement of the plasma mortars, and the EMS/STL. Mothership Subdivision, will add to the new design, the turreted particle cannons and the EMS/STL system, and Defence Satellite Subdivision, will create a new G.O.D. satellite, that incorporates a long range particle cannon, secondary medium range plasma cannons, short range interceptors, and standard high yield missiles, as well as the new updated sensors. Any doubts so far?"

"So we don't have a time table for this requirements?" asked Dr. Inder Lloyd

"No, our development priority are the exo-endo fighter, the Multipurpose Nova and the stopgap Mothership, and they must all start fielding one year from now at the most. Secondary requirements will most likely get a time table, when the priority projects are deployed, but all secondary requirements are tied to the development of the EMS/STL and the particle cannon, so it would be good to have designs and if possible prototypes of these two systems one year from now. If we take into account standard timing for major project's prototyping, demonstration and validation phases, We could have these designs being implemented into our units in approximately seven years."

"Aren't we going to implement some of the technologies captured during the war on our new units." asked Dr. Caroline Ohrn

"No, Caroline. Not yet. We still have a long way to go to understand many of those technologies, and that is precisely the subject we'll discuss on our tertiary requirements. So if there are no further questions? Shall we continue with them?"

"Sure," "OK," "Yes," "Of course." answered the four Doctors simultaneously.

"OK. Tertiary Research and Development requirements, are focused on captured alien technologies. We have been given the task to develop our own systems based on those technologies and start upgrading our units with them as soon as possible. Earthforce won't design new units until these technologies have been researched, but once that's done, we are to design new Warships, Fighters, Motherships and GOD satellites from the ground up to incorporate them. Until then, we'll have Nova fours, fives, sixes, etc."

"What do you mean by Nova fours, etcetera, etcetera." asked Doctor Douglas McCluskey

"That you will upgrade the current units with these technologies until all have been developed. When a capture technology is ready for implementation, you can add it to a Nova IV design, and wait for another one to be implemented on a Nova V, and etcetera. We are not going to design new units, if new developments are going to make them obsolete before leaving the shipyards. We'll wait until we have them all researched before doing that."

"OK, I understand."

"So, for the Energy Systems Support Secondary Subdivision, we have the gravimetric enhanced fusion reactors captured on Dilgar ships. The Propulsion Systems Support Secondary Subdivision have the gravimetric enhanced fusion drives from Dilgar ships, and the non Newtonian gravitic drive of the Dilgar Sekhmet class. Detection and Navigation Systems have the advance Hyach and Abbai sensors and navigation systems recovered from Sekhmet wreckages from the battle of Balos and some Hyach and Abbai ships from the battle of Omelos. Offensive Systems have Dilgar Bolter cannons, Dilgar particle lasers, Hyach lasers, Brakiri Gravitic Lances and Abbai lasers. Defensive Systems have the Abbai Shields and the advance armor of the Sekhmet. Data Processing Systems have the advance Hyach and Abbai computers again recovered from the Sekhmets and Abbai and Hyach ships. Life Support Systems have Dilgar, Abbai, and Hyach artificial gravity systems, and Ground Combat systems have the Dilgar spectres cloaks, and several minor level technologies. Those are the technologies to be develop and implemented individually on our units as our tertiary development requirements."

"I understand that many of those technologies are non operational as they were mostly recovered from wreckages, but every single technology that I mentioned is at least good enough for reverse engineering once we are able to study systems from different wreckages. It'll be a tough job, but we have to do it. Any doubts?"

"Yes. What about Vree components and systems. Weren't we capable of recovering something from the wreckages of the Battle of Omelos?" asked Caroline

"No. As you know Vree ships use antimatter reactors, and are lightly built, so every ship that lost antimatter containment was destroyed, and almost all heavily damaged vessels suffered from lost of containment, If there is a Vree ship out there that was crippled but wasn't destroyed, is not in our hands, and technology recovered from other League worlds, are not superior to the ones we are to research, so they were not mentioned." answered Masaru

"OK." said Caroline

They ended the meeting with a lengthy discussion into specific systems requirements, capable of being implemented on the designs of every subdivision.

**Earth – Earth Alliance**

**Starfury Training & Production Facility**

**20 km below Himalayan mountain range**

**Jammu and Kashmir Region**

**May 7, 2234**

For several months, a 50 meter in diameter tunnel boring machine, advancing at a steady pace of 1.7 meters per minute, had created a 420 kilometers long tunnel, that was 40 meters in diameter and had a 5 meters cylindrical military grade armoured wall. The first 400 kilometers of the tunnel descended at a 3 degree angle, and reached a depth of 20 kilometers, where it levelled and advanced for another twenty kilometers. In this last track was installed a highly automated fighter production and training facility.

The tunnel before the production and training facility was divided in three sections, The lowest one, was 10 meters in height and was designed to move raw material, via magnetic rails. The top section was also 10 meters in height and was designed to transport finished fighters to the surface. The middle part of the tunnel, was 20 meters in height and 40 meters in width, both borders of this section were use to store finished fighters, with enough space for two years of production or 42,000 fighters and was to be used once the surface bases had been fully deployed, with the difference that this huge warehouse was designed only to replace battle losses, and will not have people trained to manned them. On the center of the section, there were two types of transporting systems: on the floor, the traditional two way vehicle highway, and on the roof, a two way monorail magnetic system, but with the trains connected at the top. On one of this trains was a group of recently trained gropos, that also had basic flight training. They were on their way to becoming engineers and certified combat pilots.

"OK, people. Listen up." said an instructor, at the front of the small magnetic train, "You are going to be the first squadron of exo-endo atmospheric Nova class Starfurys. Just to get your bearings, you are going to be deployed into a five hundred and twelve fighter strong base, with thirty two squadrons of sixteen fighters each. Yes you heard correctly, sixteen. Our planetary based squadrons are being ramp up from twelve to sixteen fighters. This people is the first exo-endo squadron to be deployed worldwide, the first of your base, the first of this production facility, and the first under my responsibility. I'm not a drill sergeant, I'm a contracted civilian engineer, but I'll demand and expect the same result as if I were one.

"In a few minutes we'll be arriving at the production and training facility. You'll receive an orientation tour, and tomorrow you'll start your practical and theoretical training. After two weeks of intense practices, the facility will initiate operations, and each unit of four will follow their unit's fighter, throughout all the production run. Every twenty five minutes a new fighter will initiate production. You will follow it through 20 assembly points, that will take more than eight hours, the fighters will reach an accumulation strip, that will allow you to rest until the next day. At the start of the next day, your fighter will reach a second 20 unit production assembly point, which will again last twenty five minutes each. You will do this for nearly five days, until your fighter is completed. You will then proceed with it to the surface, were you will receive your advance flight training, most of it in simulators. The best pilot of each unit, will have the privilege of taking their fighter to base."

The first squadron composed of 64 people, first of many to come, arrived at the complex to begin their training. They started with their orientation tour, and followed by two weeks of intense engineering practices, that will allow them to provide basic maintenance to a starfury, and provide understanding of the production process and advance engineering training they'll be subject for the next five days.

During the starfury production process, they were present in every part of the construction, from material processing, through component manufacture, to system integration. They went through nearly one hundred assembly stations, in which they not only understood the science required in producing a starfury, but comprehended the basic needs of every component integrated in the design. If they were to be put in a fighter at this moment, they would most likely know the source of every noise emitted by the starfury.

After nearly three weeks of intense engineering training, they went back to the surface to begin their advance flight training, a 96 hour, two week long simulator course, that will certify them as exo-endo atmospheric starfury pilots, and will allow the most qualified of them, to bring the starfury to full deployment at its permanent base.

Two weeks later and after the most intense simulator based flight training, the 16 most qualified pilots, walked their way through the tarmac, to their designated fighter. The starfuries had their cockpits facing to the sky. They were resting on the outermost enlarged thrust vectoring vane, mounted on each plasma engine, which had been reinforce to resit landings on 1.8 Gs planets. There was a land vehicle mounted ladder, from which each pilot reached the cockpit.

"TPF Tower, Starfury one eco foxtrot delta one, holding short for V/TOL take off for westbound departure, over."

"Starfury one eco foxtrot delta one, TPF Tower, cleared for immediate V/TOL take off and westbound departure, over."

"Roger, one eco foxtrot delta one, cleared for immediate V/TOL take off on west bound departure."

The sixteen starfuries, acknowledged their clearance and throttled their four plasma engines at full power, they didn't take off as their space rated plasma engined didn't have the power to lift the starfury, but will certainly help the air breathing plasma engine pod installed, which was started moments later by the pilots. At first the engine provided thrust by direct release of engine plasma, but as the air intakes were opened, the engine sucked air and compressed it in a plasma mixture chamber, which brought the air close to a state of plasma, and the expanded gas was released through the tail pipe, providing thrust in excess of the combined output of the other four plasma engines.

The sixteen starfuries lifted off the Training and Production Facility airfield. They started climbing slowly into the sky, and were about to reach an altitude of 80 km.

"Orbital Command, Starfury one eco foxtrot delta one, requesting clearance for suborbital insertion, and Geneva airspace approach, over."

"Starfury one eco foxtrot delta one, Orbital Command, cleared for minus one hundred and twenty kilometers suborbital insertion, Geneva airspace notified of your approach, over."

"Roger, one eco foxtrot delta one, cleared for minus one two zero klick suborbital insertion."

Geneva was relatively close of the TPF airfield, so a full orbital insertion was unnecessary. The sixteen starfuries cut their engines an let inertia do the job. They were taken through a parabolic route out of the atmosphere and back again by gravity, they re-entered the atmosphere with their four plasma engines at full power, but on their forward engine vectors, which help the starfury decelerate into Geneva airspace.

"Eco Foxtrot Delta one Tower, Starfury one, requesting permission to dock at sierra hotel one through sixteen, over."

"Starfury one, Home base, cleared for docking at starfury hangars one through sixteen, welcome home boys."

"Roger, first squadron, cleared for docking at sierra hotel one through sixteen. Its good to be home."

The starfuries turned 360 degrees and ignited their air breathing plasma engines, and then released their fighters for automated landing control, which slowly vectored every fighter into their V/TOL hangars. It was a block with a total of 512 armored V/TOL hangars, separated by several meters from each other, and protected by interceptor batteries for anti air and anti ground engagements. The sixteen starfuries, slowly approached the first sixteen of them, and safely entered its protected confines. The starfury was lowered inside, and a heavily armored sliding roof closed on top of them.

The first exo-endo atmospheric starfury squadron was operational, and many more were to follow.

**Sol System – Earth Alliance**

**Asteroid Belt – Earthforce firing range**

**August 18, 2234**

EAS Clitemnestra was clearly seen above the missile tubes of the light grey painted vessel. Several blast cannons, and light lasers, protruded from the surface of the ship giving it a menacing look. It was one of the first non jump capable human dreadnoughts, pride of their era, but now retired and obsolete, and designated system monitors. The Orestes class vessel, was floating gracefully in space, waiting in silence for its fate. Alone? No. not alone, it was a prey. A prey from the greatest predator know to man, and it was several hundred kilometers in front of it. The surface of the ship illuminated milliseconds before being struck by a massive barrage of plasma weapons fire.

Eight heavy plasma bolts, followed closely by one hundred and sixty smaller bolts, hit the forward structure of the Clitemnestra, boiling the armor, and passing through the whole length of the ship, almost vaporizing it. The ship was broken in half from bow to stern, destroying the entire forward hangar and weapons mounts and the aft engine block. All that remained were two floating parts of the central command and missile block. One of them was tumbling away and showing in its structure two words: EAS Clitemnestra.

In front of its remains stood the EAS Persephone, prototype and first of the Nova II class of dreadnoughts. Its name, a tribute to the ship and crew lost in the first Battle of Tirrith.

"Admiral. Post alpha strike analysis shows all systems in the green. All four plasma conduits working within parameters, and weapon capacitors charging as expected." said the chief engineer

"Thank you son." said Admiral Donald Ferguson, while turning to see the Head of Warship Subdivision, "Impressive work Dr. McCluskey. The Nova proved to be an excellent warship against the Dilgar, but the Persephone subclass is on a league of its own. Impressive work."

"Thank you Admiral. You'll find the other upgrades suiting as well."

"I know I will, son." he said, while turning to see the Captain, "Captain, you have the con. Proceed with the shake down cruise and put her through her paces. I want all problems found and corrected, before full scale production begins in January. The second prototype. The Hamato, will be joining your Detachment within two weeks." he turned to see Douglas again, "Doctor. Our shuttle is waiting."

"Right behind you Admiral."

Several minutes later, the Admiral's shuttle undocked from the Persephone, it passed through its detachment of two Novas and five Hyperions as escorts, and one tanker and one tender as support ships for the operation, and reached the Admiral's transport, an old Oracle cruiser. This last vessel started moving away towards Earth, when several hyperspace windows lighten up the ship, taking away the Persephone's Detachment, towards is shake down cruise.

**Proxima system – Earth Alliance**

**Proxima III colony - Orbital shipyards**

**October 3, 2234**

If there was something of strategic importance outside of the Sol system, then it definitely was the Proxima system's shipyards. They weren't as impressive as those on Earth, and represented only a small fraction of military ship building capabilities, but they did produce nearly forty percent of every civilian ship travelling the space lanes. From small transport/freighters to the massive ore carriers and the majority of the Orion Space Stations.

Several thousand kilometers from the main orbital docks stood the EAMS Astrum, first of the Astrum class of Motherships, a stop gap solution for securing funding, while a new design was put forward. The Astrum had a Nova/Nova II class engine block in place of an Orion station's hangar. The engine block was followed by a nearly two kilometers in length tube, where four reinforced torus shaped counter rotating habitats, the same as those use on the Orion class of Space Stations, were connected via magnetic bearings. The first and third torus rotating in one direction, while the second and fourth rotated on the other, to avoid asymmetrical torque. At the end of the tube, were two hangars linked to each other, but one pointing upwards, while the other went downwards. Inside them a total of 72 Nova class starfuries, 36 to each hangar were positioned near the hangar doors and beyond the main shuttle docks. At the bow of the tube, the Astrum had the necessary connections and infrastructure required to add the modular shipyard.

The mothership was equipped with a total of eight Nova/Nova II class fusion reactors, four in the engine block, and one in between of each of the magnetic bearings. Its defensive and offensive systems, consisted of a total of 64 interceptors on the outer surface of the Toruses, and 16 interceptors in the inner part, to protect from fighters entering that area. It had a total of four turreted plasma Mortars located in the engine block, and four on the bow, mounted on the starboard and port sides of the hangars. At the stern of the Astrum, after the engine block and before the first torus, were missile launchers pointing outwards, and equipped with a total of 256 missiles. They were located at the stern, as they were designed to be used to cover a retreat. There was also a mine deploying tube, that run through the center of the four engines and with a magazine capacity of more than 500 small thermonuclear mines, that after firing its missiles in normal space and entering hyperspace, were design to make enemies think twice about following it and falling prey to hyperspace shockwaves created by the mines.

There were many shuttles coming and going from its hangars, some bringing colonists from the surface of Proxima III, while the majority were doing so from passenger ships that had arrived earlier from the Sol system. A total 32,000 people were to permanently live inside the luxurious space station. The four toruses had a total of 3 square kilometers of recently planted forest on the main level, followed by 6 levels of hydroponics with 18 square kilometers of space, enough to feed the entire population of the station and then some, allowing it to export nearly a third of its production. The rest of the levels had highly comfortable homes with personal gardens, and the infrastructure required to manage the colony, from educational facilities, to engineering and security stations. Every aspect of a colony had been taken care with a lot of redundancy. This made acquiring a position in one of these Motherships, a highly sought out event.

"Captain, the last shuttle just docked, we'll be ready to depart in approximately thirty minutes." said the Hangar controller.

"Good." said Captain Jaan Kruus, while turning to face his XO, "Commander, have the ship ready for departure, and signal our escorts that we are leaving in forty five minutes."

"Aye, aye, Sir."

The Mothership had been tested thoroughly, and had returned two days before from its shake down cruise. It was now ready to depart, to fulfil it mission by settling itself in an uncolonised solar system. Its four engines were started, and came to life with a bright blue gaze. It started to slowly accelerate the Mothership to 1G, while the toruses increased their spinning to 1.5G to compensate for the acceleration. Its escorts of four Hyperion class cruisers, cruised by its side en route to the jump gate, which opened a jump point into hyperspace after a slow but steady approach by the Mothership an its escorts.

Several days later, the Astrum an its escorts, transitioned to normal space through a massive hyperspace window, created by the Mothership. It settle in orbit of a non colonizable planet which, though didn't possess an atmosphere nor the gravity required for domed cities, did have the resources to create a mining infrastructure to provide for a future warship construction contingency.

The Astrum settled in orbit, with its hangar bays pointing to the planet, as to facilitate shuttle traffic that were going to develop the mining infrastructure.

The age of space colonization through Mothership deployment, and not subject to suitable planet findings, had arrived.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's note:

-The first half of this chapter is the remaining background info for this story, and then it begins.

* * *

**Chapter Two**

**Sol system – Earth Alliance**

**1.2 AU beyond Jupiter solar orbit – Empty space**

**Nova III "Vesuvius subclass" & G.O.D.S. II - EMS/STL & Particle cannon testing**

**May 17, 2242**

The EAS 'Vesuvius', prototype and lead ship of the Nova III class of dreadnoughts was part of a group of ships which included the EAS 'Olympus Mons', EAS 'Hecates Tholus', and the EAS 'St. Helens', all Nova III class. The ships were in standard line formation at 500 km from each other and were positioned 500 km upwards from another line formation, again separated by 500 km, but this time, of second generation Global Orbital Defence Satellites or G.O.D.S. II.

The four ships and four satellites were the first of their types, and had been deployed beyond Jupiter's solar orbit to test their classified equipment.

The Nova III ships had the exact configuration as the Nova II, the difference came with the replacement of the two Plasma Mortars for two heavy Particle cannons and their corresponding capacitors, and the addition of the EMS/STL interferometric sensor receivers on every gun, including the interceptors. The two new particle cannons went from the bow of the dreadnought, all the way back to the command block, with a barrel length in excess of 400 meters, creating a bulge in the frontal ventral area of the ship. The two guns had a capacitor system able to absorb 15 seconds of total reactor power, and then discharge this energy in a two second long particle beam. It gave each gun a total of 162 PW for a two second discharge, that combining both guns gave a total fire-power of 648 PJ, almost the entire plasma discharge of the Nova II, but in only two very long range guns, and nearly doubling this with the addition of the secondary dual plasma cannons at close to medium ranges.

The EMS/STL system included a total of 95 interferometric capable sensors. These were deployed on top of every turreted gun, including the 72 interceptors, the 20 dual plasma cannons, and on three adjacent dome structures mounted on top of the two particle cannons and below the hangar exit. This gave the Nova III an all-around emissions search, track and lock capability for short and medium ranges, and in conjunction with several distanced ships, the ability to perform an interlinked interferometric emissions detection for long and very long range search, track and lock.

The G.O.D.S. II, were the first new Global Orbital Defence Satellite design deployed in almost forty years, and were completely different than the first generation of defence satellites used by the Earth Alliance. They were equipped with a Nova dreadnought series fusion reactor, with a power output of 22.5 PW and capable of feeding 10.8 PW to the weapons systems without compromising plasma generation. Fixed in front of the reactor was a 162 PW Particle Cannon, giving it a length in excess of 600 meters. These two sections of the satellite were flanked on the top and bottom by a 324 PJ capacitor capable of being charge by the reactor in 30 seconds, and which was covered with heavy armor. The starboard and port sides of the satellite were covered by 10 missile tubes on each side and again covered with heavy armor. The 20 tubes carried a total of ten 55 meters long missiles per tube, for a total of two hundred - 342 PJ fusion warhead equipped missiles. The secondary guns were mounted at the stern of the satellite, and on top of the reactor, one for each side, giving the satellite a total of 4 dual plasma cannons for short and medium ranges, and were the same used on the Nova series of dreadnoughts. There were also a total of 32 MK-II defence grid energy projectors or interceptors for its point defence requirements, and included the E-Web system. The satellite also had the EMS/STL system with a total of 38 interferometric capable sensors.

Phase one through five of the demonstration validation phase, had already been completed and included testing for the first three phases on an engagement range of 1 light second. The first had a total of eight fixed targets at the designated distance, and which were engaged by each unit with a single shot from the particle cannons. The second phase included a total of eight moving targets with fixed heading and speed, and also at the same distance, and which were also engaged and destroyed by each unit with a single shot from the particle cannons. Third phase included a total of eight moving targets that changed heading and speed, but that were located at the same distance of one light second and that required to be engaged by at least three units at the same time to cover all predicted paths of the target. The testing for phase three required more than forty shots from the units deployed to engaged just eight targets, until it was determined that three ships were required to guarantee a hit at that distance when dealing with evasive targets.

Phase four through six required making the same tests, but with the drone targets deployed at four light seconds in range. Phase four targets were engaged again with single shots from the particle cannons, while Phase five had the targets engaged by single units but with a 75 percent hit ratio. Phase six that was about to begin required engaging targets deployed at 4 light seconds in range and that changed course and speed through their entire approach.

All units fired their bright orange particle beams once at their designated target and all missed, then two units were assigned to fire at the same target and missed, then three and again missed, then four, five, six, until seven units firing at the same time were able to hit a single target, but after repeating the procedure with the next target, they missed. This process was repeated with seven units for the first four targets achieving 50 percent hit ratio, and for the last four units, it was determined that it was better to use eight units per target, which after engaging four drones, they had achieved a 75 percent hit ratio.

"Is it normal, Admiral, to miss this much?" asked Senator Elizabeth Levy, a woman in her forties, a brunette with an air of authority, her short wavy hair framing her very serious facial expression. She was on board the Vesuvius as representative of the Senate.

"At this range it is Ma'am."answered Admiral Donald Ferguson from the senator's right side. "Those units are located at 4 light seconds away from our position. Their emissions take 4 seconds to reach us, then our computer systems determined the location of the target and the probable position they'll be when our particle beams reach them, so our computers are acting as oracles to determine where the targets are going to be at least 9 seconds into the future, so if the targets are not moving, or are doing so at a fixed heading and speed, they are easy to engage, even at this distance, but if they are changing course and speed, our systems have to determine their most probable location, and engage it with units that provide the best overlapping fire through the targets probable vectors."

"I heard the Hyach were able to engage targets at even longer ranges. How is that possible?"

"It's because of their sensors. They use very advanced tachyon based sensors, which are well beyond our capabilities, but which we hope to reverse-engineer in the near future."

"Are these sensors better Oracles Admiral?" asked the Senator half-joking.

"No Ma'am. Tachyons travel faster than light, so they are able to lock a target without delay, and can guide the angle of their weapons all the way to it."

"So that means they'll be able to snipe us at a distance, doesn't it, Admiral? I thought that the whole purpose of the Particle cannons and the EMS/STL system, was precisely to avoid exactly that."

"And it is, Madam Senator, but we really have to make miracles with the technology we possess."

"How so, Admiral?"

"We don't have tachyon-based sensors which reduce range penalties by half. Those sensors only have to deal with the delay from computer calculations and beam's travel, while we have to cope with emission's travel, computer calculations delay and beam's travel, but we do have a tachyon-based system that can help us accomplish the same. We have pretty well mastered tachyon-based communications, so our strategy for Fleet engagements require us to deploy fighters and or missiles ahead of any Capital ships to provide sensor guidance at the speed of a tachyon. What we do, is have our forward units transmit sensor readout and relay it via tachyon-based communications systems. This way we can accomplish pretty much the same, but for our Global Orbital Defence Grid, we'll be deploying sensors all around a planet, but located at least two light seconds away to provide early warning, as we can't delay to engage an invasion fleet until our fighters or missiles reach them."

"Interesting solution Admiral, Not very-state-of-the-art, but still pretty decent." said the impressed senator.

"Thank you Ma'am. We do what we can with what we have."

"The Hyach are far more advanced than we are, and if you are able to at least equal them in a standard fight, then it's something that must be commended. It's good to know that we have extremely competent commanders in charge. It's good to have you, Admiral. It's very good to have you all."

"Thank you Senator, and it'll be good to have you leading us next year."

"There are still the '43 elections in between you know."

"But I'm sure you'll prevail." finished Admiral Ferguson with a smile.

**Sh'Lekk'Tha system – Minbari Federation**

**Valen'Tha Sharlin class war cruiser - Grey Council meeting**

**April 19, 2245**

"Well Lennon. You said you wish to speak with us." said Duhkat, Chosen One and head of the Grey Council. He paused and then added, "Step in to the circle and speak."

Lennon, the leader of the Anla'Shok moved forward and stepped into the circle of nine. He spoke about Valen, and of the nearing prophecy of a thousand years: a prophecy which told of the return of the Shadows. He spoke about the Rangers, of their unpreparedness to watch for the return of the Great Darkness, because they were not taken seriously by some members of the council and by the Warrior cast.

Duhkat interrupted him, "This prophecy also said that the Anla'Shok will arise. They will be ready, and they will be instrumental in the next great war, so why not wait until there is proof?" He told him that Valen created the Great Council from members of every cast, so that no one could have undue influence above the others, and that this prophecy fell under the category of religion. That the workers needed to know why they should stop building bridges and start building ships, guns and weapons, and that the Warriors need to know why they are being call upon to serve and to die. So he asked, "What do you say to them?"

"All I can say is that I believe. What there is more to say? We need money, resources, people, and we need to attempt to re-contact the Vorlons." said Lennon. Someone laughed.

"Coplann, what does the Warrior cast find so amusing?" asked Duhkat of the one who laughed.

The warrior uncovered his head, and answered that in the last hundred years, they had send more than a dozen ships into Vorlon space, and that none had returned. He added that sending more would be a waste of time and effort and lives.

The discussion continued until Delenn mentioned that the prophecy said that the Shadows will return to their home world of Z'ha'dum before moving against them, so she proposed to send an expedition to that planet to determine if they had indeed returned. Coplann spoke against that because the expedition would be hard, as the area around Z'ha'dum is mined with traps and ancient defence systems, and that other races had moved in and claimed that space as their own, and said that the Warrior cast will take no part in such an expedition, as it will create panic among the population.

Duhkat agreed with Coplann, but added, "We will go." The council protested, but he said that it was them who had to determine how much help to give to the Anla'Shok. He decided that they will take a small force sworn to secrecy to avoid the panic that Coplann feared, and that they will travel indirectly, resupplying at various outposts until they were ready to make the final jump.

Several weeks later, the Minbari Grey Council force arrived at their last outpost, and before making the last jump towards Z'ha'dum, Delenn received her initiation and became a member of the council. If there was any force out there that could have interrupted the proceeding, it didn't come, and several hours later the ships entered hyperspace towards their destination.

**Hyperspace – Near Earth Alliance border**

**EAS Pythia detachment - Spin-ward Planetary Exploration and Colonization Command**

**July 12, 2245**

The EAS Pythia and Oracle class cruiser was leading a formation of eight ships, that included another Oracle class vessel, two Artemis class Heavy Frigates, and four Olympus class Corvettes. The ships were assigned to the Exploratory branch of Earthforce, and were part of a Fleet of older ships tasked in exploring adjacent star systems.

The exploration of new star systems required that any new system be located by standard triangulation techniques in normal space, and then, use the hyperspace beacons installed on the star systems used for the triangulation process to determine the location of the targeted star in hyperspace.

After the Dilgar War, EarthForce started an exploration and colonization program, that had one percent of the Gross Alliance Product. Colony expansion and colonization of new habitable planets was performed by newer ships that could handle the colonist's transport and building requirements. Exploration of the unknown regions of space was left to the older ships of the Fleet for three reasons: First, they weren't good at combat compared to newer vessels, which were kept near populated planets for defence purposes. Second, they didn't have the space or the equipment to help expand the Alliance, and Third, EarthForce wanted to avoid showing their most advanced technology to possible hostile races, and/or risk losing it to them if for some reason it was captured or salvaged from an accident.

The original colonies had been colonized by sending expeditions to star systems, where older optical terrestrial planet finder missions had determined the existence of probable habitable planets, but during the last ten years, hundreds of vessels had been scouting adjacent solar systems for habitable and/or resource-rich planets, while leaving hyperspace beacons on each one of them. The number of beacons and in consequence solar systems under control of the Earth Alliance now numbered 6,263. The majority of those stars lacked any kind of presence other than the mentioned beacons. These new systems formed spheres of beacons around the original colonies and Earth, and if they were to be placed together, they would occupy approximately a 60 light year wide sphere, but the fact that they were located around the original colonies, it made Earth Alliance space, that was more than 3,000 light years wide, look in hyperspace like clusters of beacons separated far and wide.

It was at the border of one of these clusters composed of 164 beacons, surrounding the Vega star system, that the EAS Pythia detachment was one of many assigned to explore space.

"Sir, we are reaching the coordinates, and they match a gravity disturbance in hyperspace. The people at Exploration Command are getting good at plotting new star systems." said the Navigation Officer with an impressed look on his young face.

"Well, with the amount of beacons out there, I wouldn't ask for less. It's far easier to plot a location with many of them, than when just using three." said Captain Jeff Easum, an elderly, thin and tall officer, who was born on Proxima 3, and who was ending his last years of service before retirement from the Exploratory branch of EarthForce. He turned to his XO, and added. "Erin, please open a vortex and deploy a satellite, and then have all ships hold station until we get telemetry."

"Yes, Captain." answered Lieutenant Commander Erin Cunning, an Earth born officer. She was an excellent tactician, and could have gotten a position on any newer vessel, but the routines of peacetime forced her to request a transfer to the Exploratory branch to satisfy her thirst for adventure.

The Pythia opened a vortex and a spherical satellite was deployed through it. After transitioning to normal space the vortex closed, and the spherical surface of the satellite started receiving emissions all around it, and several hours later, it had determined that there were three planetary bodies in the system. On board the Pythia the Captain selected the distribution of ships per planet and assigned an Artemis and an Olympus to study the middle of the three, while an Oracle and two Olympus will be heading for the one closest to the Sun, and the Pythia plus an Artemis and an Olympus to the farthest planet.

The Pythia opened another vortex and the EAS Eileithyia and EAS Hemera, an Artemis and an Olympus class vessels, transitioned to normal space close to the second planet of the uncharted solar system. Both ships didn't have jump engines, so the Pythia opened a vortex for them, so that they could avoid the long voyages required for trips in normal space. Another vortex was opened by the Oracle class EAS Didyma, and with its escort of two Olympus class corvettes, the EAS Coeus and Styx, made the transition to the first planet of the mentioned system. Several minutes later, which the Pythia used to recharged its jump engines, it open another vortex to the third planet and was followed by its two escorts the Artemis class EAS Potnia Theron and the Olympus class EAS Hephaestus.

The entire detachment started their standard reconnaissance mission. They scanned the planets for their habitability and mineralogy analysis, a process that took several day to complete. While this process continued, all ships performed standard maintenance of their vessels to keep them in optimal conditions, but one ship orbiting the second planet, the Olympus class EAS Hemera, had had a recurring problem with its starboard-dorsal engine while on hyperspace and the crew decided that this was the perfect time to perform a more thorough inspection to the entire reactor assembly.

After two days of inspection, the problem was found on the deuterium fuel pump's flow regulator, not a common problem as to have spare parts to avoid a shipyard based maintenance, but also not a life threatening one as to have the vessel stranded. On its return trip the ship would have to keep a fix setting on the flow of reactants into the reactor chamber and keep the other engines at the same power level, while using thrusters and vectoring vanes to compensate for the difference in thrust.

Every ship carried at least a beacon to deploy on recently explored star systems, and the Hemera used the opportunity to deploy one of them into the second planet's L1 Lagrange point to test its starboard-dorsal reactor-engine assembly. The ship departed orbit at 1/3 or 1g acceleration and after several hours, deployed its beacon. A satellite designed with a standard Nova class starfury fusion reactor with sufficient fuel to last hundreds if not thousands of years emitting a tachyon pulse into hyperspace, and sufficient armor to withstand small micrometeorite impacts as to avoid any kind of maintenance in its projected life. All major beacon's health tests were being performed, and the satellite was about to be activated.

**Valen'Tha Sharlin class war cruiser – Hyperspace**

**Bridge - Same time**

"You have something to report?" asked Duhkat.

"Yes Chosen One." answered a member of the warrior cast, while guiding Duhkat to a holographic room.

Upon entering, a sensor display of hyperspace activated around both of them and was showing a net of beacons all around them. At the stern and port side of the ship were a few barely discernible Minbari beacons, those that belonged to the last and farthest Minbari outposts, beyond them and out of range of the sensors was Minbari space. In front of the Valen'Tha and some 20 degrees to starboard, could be seen more than a hundred beacons in a sphere configuration, while the sensor systems were receiving tachyon emissions beyond them, and from several angles, but of the same frequency. The sensor system was unable at that moment to pinpoint the source of those emissions because of the range.

The Warrior bowed respectfully to Duhkat. "We were going to deploy a beacon to keep moving towards Shadow space when we detected them. We thought you would be interested in knowing this."

"Indeed I am." said Duhkat while, at the same time, a new beacon activated on the border of the beacon sphere, and near the path of the Valen'Tha. Duhkat observed the alien beacon with a curious and puzzled frown. "Intriguing... Set a course to that star system. I want to meet this race. I'll be in the council chambers." he finished while leaving the holographic room.

"Yes Chosen One." said the warrior, bowing again.

**Vega Cluster Beacon 165 – Earth Alliance Space**

**Recently explored star system**

**Second planet**

**Several hours later**

The EAS Hemera had deployed the beacon in the second planet's L1 Lagrange point, and had changed course towards the planet to rejoin the EAS Eileithyia. After several hours of uneventful cruising, the ship arrived, and was entering into a higher orbit than that of the Artemis heavy frigate, when a jump point opened more than a hundred thousand kilometers from it in the exact location that the beacon had been deployed.

"Hyperspace vortex detected! Bearing 047 mark 009, 127 Megameters away." Barked Lieutenant Jack Mason excitedly. He was the Hemera's sensor officer: a twitchy little man, who had recently graduated from the EarthForce Academy and was serving his first Fleet deployment.

"Yellow alert," said Captain Emmy Pencala calmly to the tactical officer, and then turned to the sensor officer and added. "Give me a full scan. I want to know what came through."

"I'm on it Captain, but our sensor's emissions are being scattered by some type of stealth technology. I'm only getting a silhouette."

"What about passive sensors?" asked the captain, losing a little of her composure as well.

"I'm barely receiving Gamma ray and infra red emissions, no radio, microwave, x-ray or ultra-violet ones. I'm switching to visual... Wait! They've gone active... They have detected us... Extremely powerful sensors, Ma'am. Even at this distance. I'm transferring visual data to the main screen." said Lieutenant Mason

A bluish fish-like ship could barely be seen by the visual sensors of the Olympus class Corvette. The situation stood still for a moment, while the unknown contact scanned the Hemera at long range. Moments later two more hyperspace vortexes opened less than 10,000 kilometers from the human ship.

"More contacts! Two vortexes detected! Bearing 082 mark 011, 9,233 kilometers." shouted Jack with a clear anxious voice.

"Calm yourself Lieutenant." said Lieutenant Commander Carlos Ferreira the Hemera XO with a slightly amused look on his face.

The Captain turned to her XO and ordered. "Open a channel to the Eileithyia. They have command authority on first contact situations..." She wasn't able to continue because, at that moment, strong fluctuations hit all control boards. "Report!" added the captain with a strong voice. Her mind steady, but clearly out of composure.

"The two nearest contacts have gone active, Ma'am. But the EMP generated by their sensors at this distance is disrupting everything." answered Lieutenant Mason.

The alarms went off. Main lightning went out, and backup power in.

"Now what?" asked Captain Pencala.

"All circuit breakers are out, Ma'am. We also have system instability in reactor chamber magnetic fields. Fail safes are in. Reactors 1, 3 and 4 are shutting down, but we have to manually close the fuel pumps of reactor 2." said Chief Engineer Charles Delauney.

"Do it!" barked the Captain.

"I'm sorry Ma'am, but without power, closing that regulator will take at least 10 minutes, and I don't think we have that time, Captain. We don't have enough plasma in the other reactors to keep the engines running, and if we don't shut down engine 2, the ship will start spinning out of control and the Gs will tear the ship apart. I have to shut it down, but the fuel entering the reactor will keep the plasma inside growing. We'll have to decompress it and leak its plasma into space. The reactor will shut down, but it will be flooded by the fuel getting inside. It'll take us several days to have it up and running again." the Chief Engineer answered instead.

Thrusters and vectoring vanes were not operational without main power, so the Captain had no other option.

"Damn! Do it." said the captain turning to her XO. "Tell the Eileithyia that we'll be out until we have restored power, and have all crew members secure all stations for reactor plasma decompression."

"Yes, Ma'am."

**EAS Eileithyia …**

"Sir! The two contacts are heading directly to the Hemera. They have opened up their gun ports!" said Lieutenant Vanessa Cappiello the Eileithyia's sensor officer.

Captain Veikko Juntunen, an Earthling born in Finland, turned to the tactical officer, and said. "Go to Red Alert. All weapons active."

"Are we going to attack, Captain?" asked the XO.

"We will fire only if we are fired upon. Only if fired upon! Is that clear Lieutenant." asked the Captain seriously, not to his XO, but to his tactical officer, so that his first order was not misunderstood.

"Yes, Sir."

"Sir! The Hemera's engines are shutting down." said Lieutenant Cappiello

"What? On screen. Try to contact them." ordered Captain Juntunen.

"No response, sir, but we received a transmission from them before they shut down their engines, but it's been heavily degraded by the EM pulses. It'll take a few seconds to correct and decrypt. I'm on it Captain." said Lieutenant Avery Bradley the Eileithyia's communications officer.

The image of the Hemera appeared on the Main Screen. It was seen from its ventral/port side, and the engines could barely be distinguished, but they were effectively shut-down.

"Sir! They have now opened up all their gun ports." added Lieutenant Cappiello, and at that same time the visuals of the Hemera showed a huge blast of plasma coming down from the dorsal/starboard side of the ship, and it immediately started drifting and slowly spinning by the force of the Blast."

The situation on the bridge was tense. The unknown contacts had opened up all of their gun ports, while at the same time disrupted their electronics as if using heavy jamming, and a couple of seconds later the Hemera was rocked by a plasma explosion and started drifting about.

"Full speed! Cover the Hemera." ordered Captain Juntunen.

The engines of the EAS Eileithyia came alive at full power. It didn't take much time for the unknown contacts to fully notice it, and their powerful sensors were now directed at the human ship. At the same time one of the contacts changed direction and headed directly towards the Artemis Frigate. The Eileithyia was a combat veteran of the Dilgar war, and as such it was heavily shielded for Electro Magnetic Pulses, while the Hemera was a first generation Olympus class corvette, that operated during the Dilgar War as escort for supply convoys in friendly space, and was not equipped and shielded as the Eileithyia was; something that had been clearly demonstrated with the heavy fluctuations of its power grid. None the less the Eileithyia felt the strength of the alien's sensors, and many systems were struggling to keep up.

The Captain didn't have all the elements to make a good judgement, and with the limited information coming from its sensors, and the actions taken by the unknown contacts, there was definitely nothing else he could do, and so the order was given: an order that would change the face of the Galaxy.

"FIRE! All weapons! Fire at will! Fire at will!"

The crew didn't hesitate nor question the Captains orders. The situation they were in, they felt, clearly demanded that response, and an instant later all plasma and rail guns opened fire against the closest of the seemingly offending vessels.

**Valen'Tha Sharlin class war cruiser …**

"They have tried to contact us, but we do not understand their language. As is our custom we are approaching with gun ports opened..."

"By whose order?" asked Duhkat

"Master, that's the tradition of the Warrior's caste. A gesture of strength and respect. They can see our weapons. They can see we approach them open handed."

The image of the human ships on the Valen'Tha's holographic display showed the drifting Hemera, and many blue plasma pulses heading towards them. A few seconds later, and to the astonished eyes of the Grey Council, the first plasma rounds reached the ship, many missed, but some hit. They were not heavy plasma bolts as those used on the Novas or to a lesser extent on the Hyperions, and were easily dissipated by the Minbari crystal armor with little damage, but on approach were also rail gun rounds. Their kinetic energy making the bluish armor brittle and crack on impact.

**EAS Eileithyia ...**

"I've done it. I recovered the message integrity and its being decrypted." said Lieutenant Bradley the communications officer with half a smile, which soon turned into shocked face. "Sir!" he shouted, "They were not attacked, they decompressed their number two reactor, because of problems with the fuel regulator ..." He wasn't allowed to finish.

"Cease Fire! Cease fire immediately!" The captain shouted to the tactical officer. He turned to Bradley. "Open a channel. All frequencies."

The last rail gun round left its barrel, while Lieutenant Bradley opened a channel with the unknown ships.

"Ready, Captain."

"This is Captain Veikko Juntunen of the EAS Eileithyia to unknown vessels. We are standing down. Your scanners caused instabilities to our escort's power systems, and they were forced to decompress the reactor. We were unable to verify that until recently and thought that they were under attack as you had opened up your gun ports. We strongly regret this incident. Do you require any kind of assistance? Please respond." said the Captain cutting out his communication unit, and turned to Lieutenant Bradley and added. "Repeat that transmission, until we get an answer, and please translate that to as many languages we have and send it again."

"Yes, Captain."

**Valen'Tha Sharlin class war cruiser …**

The Eileithyia's Captain was about to start his message, when the last rail gun round hit the Valen'Tha's top wing above the antimatter cannon and below the Grey council chamber. The round pierced the armor, and created a strong shock wave, which burst open seams, and broke down beams. The council chamber was a mess. Duhkat lay in agony and dying on the floor with his head on Delenn's lap, when a warrior came running towards them.

"Delenn, the hostile ship stopped firing. We need to know if we strike back, but the council is divided. Do we attack and take revenge or do we wait and try to find out what happened? Yours is the deciding vote, Delenn."

"They struck... They struck without provocation. There was no reason!... Animals!... Brutes!..." she said, her face red and wet with angry tears, emotionally breaking down in front of the Warrior, but she didn't care. She stood and faced him. "They deserve no mercy." Her facial expression was one of pure hatred and rage. "Strike them down! Kill them all! Kill all of them! All of them!" She shrieked to the warrior, hitting him several times to drive home her point, forcing him to run to relay her vote. "NO MERCY!"

Moments later …

The Valen'Tha's escort fired its green Neutron beam cannons in sequence. They hit the EAS Eileithyia in many points, passing through the ship as if they were cutting butter. Any chance of understanding from the Minbari ended when the human's vessel communication system went silent before the ship exploded. A system that was about to send the transmission in Abbai language.

The crew of the Hemera were just starting up their systems, when the main screen came to life with the image of a Minbari ship opening fire. Moments later, they followed the same fate as the Eileithyia.

**EAS Pythia …**

Captain Easum stood still as he watched the images being relayed from the Eileithyia, while hearing the transmission repeat itself over and over. He had his eyes a little out of focus, when he saw a flash of green light and then static.

"Repeat that image. 10 seconds before." ordered the Captain

The main screen flickered, and the video was reset ten seconds before it cut itself. The image showed the bluish vessel zoomed by the passive visual sensors of the Eileithyia, and a few seconds later, a green beam emanating from the middle of its starboard wing was fired, followed closely by the one at the port side. The image was shaken by the impact of the first beam, and at the same time the central and bigger beam fired. An instant later there was only static.

The Captain was perplexed. His mouth slightly opened and his eyes watching the static with bewilderment.

"Captain... Captain!" said Lieutenant Commander Cunning.

The Captain turned his head slowly to his XO. He watched her in silence as if waiting for something.

"Our ships have no chance against that kind of fire-power, and our detachment is spread out in this system. We are easy pickings. What are your orders?" She asked with a concerned look on her face.

The Captain came out of his shocked stupor. His face flashed to attention. "Gold Channel interlink all units on stealth mode, NOW!"

The communications officer worked on his station fast, and said. "Ready, Captain."

"This is Pythia Actual to all units. Proceed to zero emissions zone of your planet in relation to the second planet and execute jump. As emergency retreat protocols dictate, we'll head away from populated systems in complete emissions black-out, and we'll rendezvous at beacon VCB123. There we'll re-contact command and await orders. Execute. Pythia Actual out." finished Captain Easum.

The Pythia and her escorts moved to the other side of the planet to block the emissions of its hyperspace vortex opening, as to avoid detection by the unknown forces. The ships entered hyperspace, and moved with their engines at full power.

The Captain again turned to his communications officer, and said. "Send all related data to command via Gold Channels and inform me when it's done."

The Communications Officer worked for a while on his station and finally said. "It's done, Captain."

"Good. Record this message and send it too." said the Captain taking a deep breath.

"Ready, Sir."

"This is Captain Jeff Easum of the EAS Pythia. Unknown forces encountered at Vega Cluster Beacon VCB165, repeat Victor Charlie Beta One Six Five. EAS Eileithyia and EAS Hemera lost with all hands. All data pertaining the event had been transmitted on previous package. Pythia detachment to proceed in total communications black-out towards beacon VCB137, that's Victor Charlie Beta One Three Seven. Unknown contacts are highly advanced and considered hostile. Recommended heightened alert on all forces. Pythia out." ended the Captain.

The Human forces left the system and headed towards VCB137. They left the Minbari behind. The Valen'Tha was damaged and receiving help from its escorts. The Grey Council members were enraged by the death of Duhkat, and were ready to inflict retribution.

A war that will echo in eternity was about to begin.

* * *

Author's after notes:

- The Minbari meeting in the Sh'Lekk'Tha system, and some other dialogues relating to the Minbari were taken from the Babylon 5: in the beginning movie, I added them to give background info for those who didn't watch it, and obviously, I changed the part of Delenn's initiation where the Prometheus Battle Group Arrived, just showing that the Minbari left system without any interference. Change the dialogue a little to adjust it to the events.

- Also I'm sorry Duhkat that I had to kill you too again, but please understand that there wouldn't be and Earth-Minbari war if you were alive, and the story will be boring without it., so rest in peace.

- It took me time to design the new Prometheus incident, this time the Pythia incident. I'm not completely convinced about it, but I wasn't getting anywhere, so I decided to give it a green light as to further the story or I would have been stuck in this part for months. It was difficult to come up with a realistic way of repeating the event that triggered the Minbari War, and I really hope that it was a least more-less believable.

- Especial thanks for my betas on this one.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Three**

**Minbari Federation - Chi Draconis binary star system**

**Battle Station "Valeria" - Orbital Command**

**Geostationary orbit above Yedor.**

**July 28, 2245**

Traffic in the orbit of Minbar was hectic. Ships were moving back and forth from the planet bringing supplies and spares necessary for the first real mobilization since a thousand years. Tugs were bringing mothballed ships from the stable Lagrange points, and into the massive orbital shipyards, and smaller dockyards; a few were building ships from standard year to year contracts, but the majority were receiving mothballed vessels to put them back in operation. First the newer ones, which required less amount of time to repair or upgrade, and second the older or damaged vessels which in most cases not only required heavy repairs, but a lot of equipment upgrades to put them in par with the newer units of the Fleet.

Protecting the massive operation was one of the most powerful defense grids in existence. It represented 30 percent of the entire orbital defenses of the Minbari Federation, and was the most powerful defense grid they possessed. 220 huge Battle Stations, each with enough turreted antimatter, neutron, and fusion beams to compare to at least a dozen Sharlin class war cruisers. Strong gravitic shields that, while not as advanced as those used by the Abbai, had the reactor strength to be far more effective in defense against invasion fleets, and were systems designed to resist the impact of a single standard shadow battle crab main beam; a first one's weapon system exceeding the exawatt range. Supporting these stations were a total of 10,780 Defense Satellites, each mounting a spinal neutron beam cannon of the same class as those mounted as primary on the Sharlins. A weapon system releasing in excess of 180 petawatts, which not a single ship of the younger races was able to resist. Secondary highly accurate point defense fusion beam turreted cannons completed the offensive systems, and added to the defense. Backing them were gravitic shields that were no where near as powerful as those equipping the Battle Stations, but with enough strength to resist smaller weapons, and supplemented by standard crystal armor.

Of the 220 Battle Stations spherically surrounding the Planet, one stood above the main orbital shipyard complex: the Battle Station "Valeria". Its position gave the name for the most important industrial site on the Minbari Federation: The Valeria-On-High orbital shipyards. This Battle Station was not only positioned above the Main Minbari shipyards and the Capital of Yedor, but was also the location of Orbital Command. It was a big responsibility for a single Battle Station to cover such important targets, and having such an important task as commanding the entire orbital forces. That is why it was always supplemented by dozens of vessels from the defense fleets, especially the powerful Sharlin.

Inside it, the Worker caste managed the logistical operations of the Federation, while the Warrior caste did the same with the defense of Minbar.

"It's been only two weeks, Alyt Sineval, since we were given the order to prepare our forces for war. These things take time. The majority of our ships had been in storage for many years, some of them for more than two centuries. We have just finished assembling our first reconnaissance party, and the logistical train required to maintain them deployed so far away from our borders. I'm sorry Alyt, but I need much more than just two weeks to get a Fleet ready for operations without draining strength from our Defense Fleets." said Durlan, a member of the worker caste, in charge of preparing Minbari forces for war.

"Shai Alyt Shakiri has been very clear, in that he wants to strike back against these beasts immediately, and I intend to fulfill his command. We have already waited for two weeks. I need those ships now!" barked Alyt Sineval from the warrior caste.

"I received those orders too Alyt, and I can guarantee you that my staff is working around the clock to see this happen. But the orders also stated that the defense fleets were not to be touched, so we had had to resort to our fleet reserves. Those ships require testing of all their systems before they are fit to operate at those distances. We have placed in our shipyards first the ships which are in better condition to help us speed up the operation, and the first units are ready to depart, but are conformed mostly of Tinashi class Frigates." added Durlan.

"How many ships do we have available?" asked Sineval.

Durlan answered directly from memory. Such was his devotion to his work. "3,711 Sharlin class war cruisers and 743 Tinashi class Frigates are currently deployed to the defense fleets. Some of those Tinashis are deployed with the Anla'Shok along with 347 Andrali class cutters. We have a total of 273 Sharlins and 4,311 Tinashis on our reserve. All of our shipyards are receiving Tinashis, as they are faster to repair and recommission. You should have enough of them to send to battle, or to replace Sharlins in the defense fleets to free them up for sending to the front, in no more than two month." answered Durlan.

Sineval sighed. He was referring to the number of ships available for deployment, not the amount of vessels available in the Federation, so he asked again. "And how many of them are ready for deployment to the front?"

"We have assembled one reconnaissance party that consists of 9 Tinashis, and 3 Ulabon transports with the necessary equipment, and supplies to start building a forward supply depot." answered Durlan.

Sineval took a deep breath, while closing his eyes and moving his face towards the ceiling. His frustration was immeasurable, his desire for battle and retribution overwhelming. He knew the logistical requirements of keeping a fleet in operation, but that didn't help to contain his anxiety. He opened his eyes, and faced Durlan again, and asked calmly. "9 ships only? In two full weeks?"

Now it was time for Durlan to sigh. "The entire Federation has 277 shipyards and dockyards Alyt. 58 are currently producing Sharlins at a rate of 29 per year. 92 are permanently in operation to keep the thousands of ships in the defense fleet properly maintained. 45 are used to construct or maintain transport ships. 37 are building Battle Station components that allow as to field almost 4 of them per year, and 45 are building defense satellites at a rate of 4 per year each. None of them are idle. The fact that we are using those shipyards for bringing mothballed vessels on line means we had to stop giving programmed maintenance to ships from the defense fleet. We need more resources to construct more shipyards, or we need for the warrior caste to considerably reduce operations on the defense fleet to keep vessels which should be going into maintenance deployed."

"As soon as the Valen'Tha arrives, I'm sure the Grey Council will give you the resources you are asking. They will be here in three days, and a shipyard will be required to put the ship back in operation." said Sineval with a furrowed brow.

"I will have one available as soon as they arrive." said Durlan bowing his head.

Sineval returned the bow, and without any more considerations he turned around and headed for Fleet operations. He arrived there calmed after a relaxing walk from Durlan's office. He asked one of the communications operators to get in contact with the command vessel of the recommissioned reconnaissance party.

Alyt Levasin, commander of the Tinashi class frigate Hazash'Ti appeared on the main screen, and spoke. "Alyt Sineval. It's an honor to see you again."

"Likewise Levasin." said Sineval slightly bowing his head. "Are your forces ready?"

"The last shuttle docked an hour ago. We are ready to depart immediately, Alyt." answered Levasin.

"Good. The Grey council will be arriving in a few days, but Shai Alyt Shakiri wants us to make this race pay for killing Duhkat. You are to secure a system in their space, and start preparing a supply depot to support our fleet. More reconnaissance squadrons will be deployed in the following weeks, and they'll be escorting supply ships. We expect that in a little more than two months, we'll be having a full fleet operational at the front. Prepare, and defend the supply depot, but also scout ahead, so that the fleet has targets when it arrives. Depart as soon as you are ready." ordered Sineval.

"Yes, Alyt. What are we to do if we encounter enemy ships, or lightly defended targets?" asked Levasin.

"Destroy them on sight. I want you to find targets for the fleet, but if you can take them without support you are free to engage." answered Sineval.

"What about civilians?" asked Levasin.

"Every ship is to be destroyed. No escape will be allowed for them. Settlements are to be left untouched but guarded until the Grey council decides what to do with them."

"Yes, Alyt."

"That is all Levasin. Our race mourns the Chosen One, and you will be the first to find retribution. Go on my friend."

"Yes, Alyt."

The screen powered off, and instants later the gravitic drives of nine Tinashi class frigates and the three Ulabon transports activated propelling them towards the gate. They passed through the defense grid, and after cruising for some time, they reached the gate and it activated. It allowed the reconnaissance group to pass through to hyperspace, and they immediately change course and headed for Earth Alliance space.

**Hyperspace – Near Earth Alliance Vega beacon cluster.**

**Hazash'Ti Tinashi class frigate – Holographic sensor projection room.**

**August 7, 2245**

Alyt Levasin was standing in the center of the holographic room, where the sensor representation of hyperspace was being displayed. In front of the path of the Hazash'Ti reconnaissance party, the beacons of the Vega cluster could be discerned. Levasin used the computer system to lock into the closest of the beacons, and then ordered his command crew to head towards it. He selected it not only because of its proximity, but also because it was the site of the first contact with this race. A star system of unknown name for the Minbari, but known to the humans as VCB-165

The twelve vessels, which had been streaming through hyperspace for a little more than ten days, locked their heading on the selected beacon. After several more hours of travel, they prepared themselves for the transition.

A Tinashi and the three transports stayed a safe distance away in hyperspace to wait for the other eight ships to secure the system. The Hazash'Ti and its escorts proceeded forward, and made the jump with stealth systems at full power.

Eight jump vortexes opened near the Earth Alliance beacon, and a similar number of Tinashi class frigates transitioned to normal space. The ships went active on scanners with full power. Sensor telemetry indicated that the system was deserted, and after half an hour of intense scans, the transports were given the green light to proceed. It took some time, but the entire reconnaissance party arrived at VCB-165.

The Ulabon was the biggest transport ship of the Minbari Federation, but on Earth Alliance standards it could be considered a light transport. It wasn't as big as a standard EA transport. It was small compared to EA container ships, and it was dwarfed by the massive EA bulk carriers. The reason for this was that every single Minbari planet was self sufficient, and every planetary economy was relatively isolated from the other planets. But what they didn't have in size, they made up in speed. Their carrying capacity was small, but they could make several trips in the time it took an EA vessel to complete a single run, and especially when the distances were long.

The transport didn't have the common wings every Minbari capital ship carried. Those wings were gravitic drives, which allowed their vessels high maneuverability in the 3D environment of space. The Ulabon had only a single fin at the aft of the vessel which provided great linear acceleration, but limited maneuverability. From the fin, the ship extended forward for almost a kilometer in length, and ended with a big open hangar. Inside it were multiple types of containers for different types of goods, which were secured via tractor beams that employed advanced gravitic fields.

The Tinashi class frigates created a perimeter around the second planet, and the transports moved into orbit, and soon started their unloading operation. Different types of containers were released into orbit from inside the transports. Small satellites were also detached which contained small reactors, and tractor beam emitters that once in position were activated, and used for locking different containers to each other. There were containers for fuel, spare parts, food, etc.

It took some time for the transports to unload their cargo, but once finished, they didn't waste time, and entered hyperspace heading toward Minbari space to reload, and repeat the process.

The nine Tinashis deployed themselves in defensive formation around the orbital supply depot. One by one, they were to start refueling operations to prepare the ships for their assigned scouting mission.

**Hyperspace – Near Earth Alliance beacon VCB-165.**

**EAS Bassae – Oracle class cruiser**

**That same time …**

The Bassae had been stationed close to the VCB-165 beacon. Its location allowed it to barely receive telemetry from the exploration satellite deployed a few weeks ago by the Pythia detachment. That satellite was no where close to the second planet, as it was a blind deployment to allow the Pythia detachment to locate their exploration targets. But the satellite had been able to register many hyperspace vortex openings in the last hours, and its passive sensors where able to match a distinct type of emission to that of the unknown race sensor profile.

The Oracle class vessel had been acting as a router, and signal amplifier for the small satellite. All data received was being transmitted to the Earth Alliance 10th Fleet Headquarters at Vega, and from there to the EA High Command at Earth. It was a risky operation, as its transmissions could be detected, and triangulated. So after several hours, the ship turned around, and headed away from VCB-165.

**Vega star system – Earth Alliance**

**Vega IIA - Terrestrial type moon orbiting gas giant Vega II**

**Orion class space station "Vega" - 10th Fleet Headquarters**

**Geostationary orbit above Vega IIA outpost complex**

**August 8, 2245**

Vega IIA was a terrestrial type moon with similar gravity to that of Earth. This was one of the primary factors in determining a planet of being suitable for colonization, as it was the main reason that affected human physiology. The moon was smaller in diameter to Earth, but had a denser composition. Its atmosphere regretfully was toxic to humans, and was the reason for the colony to be composed mainly of underground habitats connected to the outside world via domed structures.

The outpost complex was composed of 14 main habitats, with a couple of others under construction. They were like skyscrapers, but instead of going to the sky they went underground. Each was a self-sufficient building capable of holding up to 20,000 people. It gave the colony a population bigger than a quarter of a million souls. On top of each building, and in the surface of the moon, there were dome structures that contained forests, and special gardens, and which were flanked by landing pads for shuttles. This gave every new arrival the feeling of being on Earth. The underground structures were vast, and went almost 2 kilometers deep. They had many additional internal forests and hydroponics to not only produce food, but to help the life support system in regulating the inner atmosphere.

Above the outpost complex, and in geostationary orbit was the Orion class space station "Vega". It not only was the commercial link to the Earth Alliance for the Vega colony, but was also the Headquarters of the 10th Fleet ships assigned for exploration in this area of space. There were many linked containers floating near the space station. Many ships from the 10th Fleet were also gathered near. The majority were old vessels: Oracles, Artemis, Sagittarius, and Olympus. All had been assigned to the relatively unimportant colony, and were gathered there to assist in the exploration of Earth Alliance space, and were the ships responsible of already charting and exploring 165 systems.

After first contact with the Minbari, the 10th Fleet's Vega exploration detachments had been returning to Vega as soon as they completed their assigned exploration targets. They were there as part of a buildup of ships to counter any type of aggression from this new race. All new exploration missions had been canceled, and ships were either being assemble in orbit, and prepared for combat, or were being sent on intel missions to gather information from this potentially hostile race.

Inside the space station, Vice Admiral Roger Bligh, commander of the 10th Fleet 39th Battle Group, was speaking through gold channels with Admiral Elizaveta Boyarskaya, 10th Fleet commander on Earth.

"..., and after showing the images sent by the Pythia detachment, the Centauri ambassador has identified them as Minbari. They are supposed to be a benevolent race, but are said to be extremely territorial, and extremely advanced. The ambassador told us that we could get in contact with them using Centauri or Abbai language. We have tried to do so for the last few weeks, but we have received no replies. The Centauri considers this a very bad omen, but nonetheless they have now entered Earth Alliance space. Your orders are simple, Vice Admiral. You are to try to get in contact with them, without any kind of provocation. Try using a civilian ship for the job, but I wouldn't risk anyone crewing it. Open a vortex for it, and send it automated. Make all communications through it. Let's hope that by seeing a ship we can force them to talk, and that we are able to reach an understanding with them." said Admiral Elizaveta Boyarskaya.

"What if they turn hostile?" asked Vice Admiral Roger Bligh.

"Try to use the minimum number of ships to support the civilian vessel, but have them wait in hyperspace. Have the rest of the 39th Battle Group ready, and close to the beacon in case they require a hand. I don't care if we lose an unmanned ship. We are willing to avoid confrontation even if the civilian vessel is attacked in the hope of reaching a peaceful solution." answered Admiral Boyarskaya.

"Admiral. I need to know the rules of engagement. I don't think they'll engage the support detachment in hyperspace, but I need to know what to do if something similar happens. What to do if our forces are engaged."

"The Vega cluster is Earth Alliance space, Vice Admiral. I don't care if it's a low tech or a high tech enemy. If we are attacked, you are to defend yourself. If it comes to that, your orders are to gain space superiority in the Vega Cluster, and repel every attempt by the enemy to get a foothold in our space until reinforcements arrive. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Admiral."

"One thing though. Do not fire unless fired upon. I don't care if you lose tactical superiority in your first engagement by doing so."

"I understand that perfectly well, Admiral."

"Good. Proceed immediately. I don't want to give them time to get a strong foothold if they are indeed hostile. We need to know that as soon as possible."

"Yes, Admiral. The 39th Battle Group will be ready in a couple of hours. As soon as it is, we'll depart. I'll find a suitable civilian ship for the job. If I can't find one, I'll use a shuttle."

"Good." she sighed. "Roger. I can't stress enough the importance of getting this right. I saw the vids of the Centauri ambassador when he was shown the Pythia incident. He was shocked when he saw those ships. Someone who knows him said he had never seen him shocked. It's the Centauri we are talking about. The most powerful economy and civilization we know of. If he was shocked, then this race is no field trip. Protect our people, but if we are to go to war with them, and if there is a God, then God help us, because we are not going to have this easy."

"I know, Admiral. I give you my word that if we engage them in battle, they will fire first."

"This Centauri ambassador, one called Londo Mollari, he gave us intelligence about this race. It wasn't very complete, but of what he showed us, and what he mentioned, we can perfectly say that if we are going to war with them, the Minbari will make the Dilgar look like a bunch of rock throwing baboons. Get that image into your mind: A bunch of rock throwing baboons. Plan accordingly. Fight on our terms not on theirs. You have seen battle footage of their beams, their way of fighting is similar to the Hyach. They will snipe you at a distance. If you have to fight them, find a way to fight them close, and for Gods sake stay away from their forward arcs! Roger, I know you very well. I know that I can trust you, but I also know quite well the ships you have available. You would be terribly outclassed by the Dilgar. This race will eat you alive if you go in head on..." She wasn't allowed to finish.

"I know, Elizaveta. We'll be fine. I promise."

"Yes, you will. But be careful. Good luck."

"We will, thank you." finished the Vice Admiral, and after a few more words, they terminated communications.

After a few minutes of intercom talking with the base commander, and giving him the specifics of the civilian ship required. The Vice Admiral relaxed in his chair, and turned to look at his desk. He had his data pad active. The screen was projecting the image of his last query before talking to the admiral. It was showing the Earth Alliance Fleets and units. It read:

1st Fleet: 512 Nova III (512 units)

2nd Fleet: 61 Nova III, 451 Nova II (512 units)

3rd Fleet: 512 Nova II (512 units)

4th Fleet: 512 Nova II (512 units)

5th Fleet: 68 Nova II, 222 Nova, 222 Hyperion (512 unit)

6th Fleet: 256 Nova, 256 Hyperion (512 units)

7th Fleet: 256 Nova, 256 Hyperion (512 units)

8th Fleet: 59 Nova, 404 Hyperion, 49 Avenger (512 units)

9th Fleet: 10 Avenger, 118 Sagittarius, 384 Artemis (512 units)

10th Fleet: 41 Sagittarius, 87 Oracle, 212 Artemis, 170 Olympus (510 units)

11th Fleet: 10 Oracle, 174 Olympus (184 units)

He pressed the touch screen on top of the 10th Fleet, and it read:

10th Fleet – Commanding Officer: Admiral Elizaveta Boyarskaya

37th Battle Group: 11 Sagittarius, 21 Oracle, 54 Artemis, 42 Olympus (128 units)

38th Battle Group: 10 Sagittarius, 22 Oracle, 53 Artemis, 43 Olympus (128 units)

39th Battle Group: 10 Sagittarius, 22 Oracle, 52 Artemis, 42 Olympus (126 units)

40th Battle Group: 10 Sagittarius, 22 Oracle, 53 Artemis, 43 Olympus (128 units)

He pressed again on top of the 39th Battle Group, and it read:

10th Fleet 39th Battle Group – Commanding Officer : Vice Admiral Roger Bligh

153rd Group: 3 Sagittarius, 5 Oracle, 14 Artemis, 10 Olympus (32 units)

154th Group: 3 Sagittarius, 5 Oracle, 13 Artemis, 11 Olympus (32 units)

155th Group: 2 Sagittarius, 6 Oracle, 13 Artemis, 11 Olympus (32 units)

156th Group: 2 Sagittarius, 6 Oracle, 12 Artemis, 10 Olympus (30 units)

He remembered the two units lost in the first encounter with the Minbari when he saw that the 156th Group had 30 out of 32 units. During the Dilgar war some of the same type of units were able to absorb dozens of hits, and sometimes continued operating with huge chunks of structure gone. But the Minbari blew them up with a single salvo from their ships, even though the Pythia incident battle footage showed that a single beam would have been enough.

During the following weeks after first contact. The Earth Intelligence Agency (EIA), and the Earth Force Naval Intelligence (EFNI) went hectic in trying to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the Minbari. This last one was able after extrapolating battle footage to recreate computer models of the Minbari vessels to be used in training simulation for bridge officers. Vice Admiral Roger Blight was one of the first to receive them. He as Battle Group commander, his four Rear Admirals as Group commanders, his 16 Commodores as Detachment commanders, and his 126 Captains as ship commanders with their corresponding XOs, had been testing for the last few days tactics and combat formations for implementing in a possible battle situation with the Minbari.

Every simulation session had been a constant moral blow for every one. Not a single of his units had been able to go one on one against the simulated Minbari crafts. The fact that they only knew about their main offensive weapons, was also another nerve racking situation. Only with their main guns, the simulated Minbari had been able to destroy their standard battle formations even in 32 to 1 odds, and the variable of not knowing secondary weapons, point defenses, and even non conventional systems, made every simulation comparable to an eighteenth century weather forecast.

One thing was certain. The units under his command were completely unable to engage in a standard battle with the Minbari. Every type of frontal assault was deemed suicide. Block or Wall formations were just target practice for the Minbari long range guns and targeting systems, as the time required for his vessels to approach firing position was enough time for the Minbari's ships to wipe them out completely. Then there was the fact that the Pythia's units were detecting only silhouettes with their main sensors, making only passive systems at short range able to track them. In short, every type of tactics that didn't contemplate short range hyperspace battle jumps was completely rejected for the unit types he had in command, except the missile equipped Sagittarius. But in any case, these units also required forward deployed ships to give target acquisition data for missile engagements.

They had some combat tactics that gave some hope for a positive outcome. But, he still wished he had newer vessels under his command and not these Pre-Dilgar War era relics. The thing was that there wasn't a declared war with the Minbari, and Earth Alliance's Fleets while on heightened alert, had still not been fully mobilized, and were not expected to be sent as reinforcements for the moment. It was his responsibility to determine if there was a reason to set the Earth Alliance in war footing again. For the moment it was just a border skirmish situation that was to be handled by local forces. In this case, his.

The 39th Battle Group was to be ready in a few hours, so he stood up, and headed for the shuttle bay. Several minutes later he took his personal shuttle, and headed for the EAS Chiron, a Sagittarius class cruiser. One of the three assigned to the 153rd Group, and which was the 39th's Flagship. A Flagship, only if this jump capable missile launching relic could be considered one. Still the 10 units of this type he had available, were the hardest hitting of them all. Their 56 anti capital ship missiles were a serious threat for any vessel, and that included the Minbari. While the ship could carry any type of missile able to fit in its launch tubes, the newer missile models had 342 Peta Joules fusion warheads, and were the same as those used on the Hyperions and Novas, but while the Hyperions carried 12 in 4 long launchers. The Sagittarius carried 56 in 56, and gave it missile firepower closer to the Novas 72. The thing was that after firing, the ship had no other offensive weapon other than its defense grid interceptors, which were useless against capital ship armor.

Of his other units, the 52 Artemis class heavy frigates he had available had the greatest non missile firepower. 6 Dual rail gun turrets, and 4 single plasma turrets. This last considered to be low powered compared to those used on the Novas, and even those of the Hyperions, as it was shown in the battle damage footage of the Minbari vessel. But its rail guns had been able to punch through the Minbari armor, so at least those weapons were considered effective against them. Its draw back was the lack of jump engines, which subjected the heavy frigate to rely on jump capable vessels like the Sagittarius or Oracle.

He also had 42 Olympus class corvettes. It was a very old Earth Alliance design which dated back to pre-Centauri contact. It was contemporary to the Orestes class of system monitors, and Tethys class patrol boats. Designs that were not even held as reserves. Those ships had already been scrapped, or were no longer operational and used as target practice. The Olympus on the other hand had survived new designs, by a constant upgrade program. The different type of batches were numerous, and many of the ships he had available were very old vessels that had been used as convoy escorts during the Dilgar War, as they were not fit for heavy combat, or intensively jammed environments. On average every ship carried a total of 4 single plasma turrets similar to those used on the Artemis, and a single dual rail gun turret, again similar to those of the Artemis. It had the same plasma fire power of the Heavy Frigate, but only 1/6 of the rail gun strength. The difference came with the inclusion of 80 anti-fighter missiles in 4 racks, which adding its interceptors made the little ship an excellent escort platform while dealing with pirates or small capital ships. But it also depended on jump capable vessels.

Finishing his Battle Group complement were 22 Oracle class cruisers. These ships had the prestige of being the first jump capable Earth alliance vessels, but this venerable class also had the lowliness of being the first jump capable Earth Alliance unit. It was long in the tooth, heavily underpowered and under-gunned, but still it allowed other non jump capable vessels to move along with the fleet. The Oracle carried only three dual plasma cannons of even less power than those equipping the Artemis or Olympus. Its only strength was its jump engines.

The entire 10th Fleet, which included the 39th Battle Group deployed at Vega, didn't have fighter support. Its vessels didn't have the capability. So every long range reconnaissance or target acquisition mission was to be performed by its capital ships. The 39th had one jump capable vessel per three non jump capable ones. If the Vice Admiral wanted to use his Sagittarius in long range engagement operations, he'd had to relay on its Oracles to deliver the non jump capable vessels for a close range combat deployment, and with its relatively low capacity jump capacitors, it would be a difficult task to perform. The energy requirement of keeping the jump vortex open was huge, and the Oracles were capable of holding it open for a very short time. Jump formations allowing for four or five other vessels to go through, plus the Oracle itself was something that had been tested in simulations the days before, and was a requirement for the few combat tactics that had any hope of defeating the Minbari with this type of vessels.

All ships reported ready. The Vice Admiral gave the signal to deploy. The Olympus and Artemis where gathered in fours or fives around an Oracle, while the Sagittarius were in a single formation, but in the middle of the other ships. A requisitioned Skylark civilian transport was among them. The ships activated their plasma engines, and started their slow approach to the jump gate, which activated when the first units arrived close to it. The 39th Battle Group passed through, and headed for VCB-165.

**Hyperspace – Near Earth Alliance beacon VCB-165**

**EAS Bassae – Oracle class cruiser**

**August 11, 2245**

The EAS Bassae joined the 39th Battle Group on its approach to VCB-165. With its captain's knowledge of the system, it was designated as the delivery ship. It was joined by 5 Olympus class corvettes, and the Skylark transport. The 39th stayed relatively close to the beacon, while the Bassae detachment headed towards it.

The Oracle cruiser and the Skylark moved together towards the delivery point. The Olympus corvettes increased their distance from the Bassae to provide for better scanning and Early warning. The last engineering detachment left the Skylark transport in full automated mode, and headed back to the 39th in a shuttle.

Hazash'Ti Tinashi class frigate ...

Alyt Levasin was watching the holographic projections. 127 ships had been detected. 120 were holding back, while 7 where heading directly towards the beacon. During the last four days since his arrival, he had secure the supply depot, and had ordered the deployment of hyperspace based sensors, and to install a Minbari beacon system which included a central beacon plus a total of 14 outer beacons in a sphere configuration. It was the standard populated system beacon deployment. The same used by the Earth Alliance, and every known space faring civilization. The fact that VCB-165 had only one was only because it was a charted world, and not a colonized one. The populated systems normally used a main central beacon and fourteen adjacent ones outside the solar system, to increase triangulation efficiencies for more precise jumps.

A total of 5 ships, including the Hazash'Ti were currently on guard duty above the supply depot. 4 Tinashis, had already deployed the hyperspace sensor system, and were now outside the heliosphere installing the first four outer beacons. For the moment they were still using the Earth Alliance beacon as the central one. The hyperspace sensors they had deployed used a gravitic propulsion system that allowed them to stay fixed to their designated positions in hyperspace.

At that moment a jump point opened nearly 80,000 km away from the depot. A small ship of unknown configuration came through, but it had the distinctive characteristics of a human vessel. The small craft hailed them. They were broadcasting in the same number of channels as the languages they were using. Two of them: Abbai and Centauri were being easily translated into Minbari. The message repeated itself over and over again. It read:

_'Minbari vessels. This is the Earth Alliance civilian ship Aikoku Maru. We have repeatedly tried to contact your leaders to express our regrets for the incident that occurred in this star system a few weeks ago. We attacked, and damaged one of your vessels in the belief that you were attacking us. Your sensors disabled the systems of one of our ships, and a forced decompression of one of its fusion reactors was executed. You had opened up your gun ports, which we normally considered an act of aggression at the same time our vessel had its decompression. The ship that opened fire, saw the plasma venting as a weapons impact, and its captain thought it was under attack. He ordered to engage your vessels. By the time they were able to confirm that it had actually been a planned activity from our unit, it ceased firing, and tried to contact your ships to explain the situation. We paid for this error with the loss of these two vessels, and their entire ship complement. It is a regretful incident that has terribly affected the families of the crewmen lost, and we believe that to be true also for your people. We have heard from our allies, that you are a benevolent and honorable race, and we request if we could set aside this situation in the hope of forging a better future for both our people.'_

It was similar to the messages that had been broadcasted towards their space for the last few weeks. The Grey council had been divided by the content of the message. The possibility of it being true weighted heavily on some council members; especially on the religious, and worker castes, and while Duhkat's death was the primary reason for seeking revenge, the warrior caste had found a logical way of justifying it all. Earth Alliance space was in former shadow territory. It was considered illogical to think that humanity wasn't influenced by the shadows or one of its thralls. Many civilizations close to their territory that were now part of the Minbari Protectorate, had been influenced in the past by them. One of these races had been space faring, and it had tried to gain influence on the other species by manipulation, deceit, and in the end force. The Minbari had fought them, and had secluded them to their homeworld to later become part of their protectorate. All of those who had had shadow influence had been very deceiving, and this message was strongly considered a deception.

During the last shadow war, the primary method of the shadows to cause chaos was to seed doubts between many governments to set them apart, to destroy alliances, and to forge conflict. It was one of the reasons they were being terribly defeated until the arrival of Valen, who fought primarily on reuniting every race. They had decided to do the same, and every race they had encountered towards Shadow space, had been handled with pincers. Those who had shown aggressiveness towards their neighbors had been knocked down by the Minbari war machine, and added into the protectorate. They had maintained the status quo by controlling every race that was fundamentally tainted from their point of view.

If the Warrior caste paranoia wasn't enough, then you could add the fact of the Dilgar War. A small civilization on the other side of shadow space managed to bring the major league powers to their knees. How comforting for them: that from the ashes of shadow space emerged their savior: a race which toppled down the Dilgar menace in such short time. It was a race now seen by the league as heroes. It was clear for the Minbari Warrior Caste, that the seeds of doubts were already being planted by the Shadows. They were already making their puppet, these humans to be loved by long standing races. Something that would make the Minbari a second option when looking for allies if a second Shadow war erupted. They were effectively isolating the Minbari from potential allies in a future war; a war that was surely close by.

So while there were doubts because of this message, there was also the prophesy of a thousand years, which was almost upon them. It was clear to them, that these humans were the new shadows' instrument of chaos. There was no race other than the Dilgar who could became one in such short notice, and the Dilgar were already defeated. Logic, a demon that could always justify right or wrong on any situation if their premises which are the core assumptions of an argument were flawed, had already given its verdict. The Grey council accepted these premises, and they led infallibly to the Warrior's Caste conclusions. The Earth Alliance was a Shadow thrall. The sentence: Remove their military as a valid threat, concentrate their population on their homeworld, and add this planet to the Minbari protectorate while securing the status quo. A status quo that will guarantee the initiative in the approaching prophesied war for the Minbari.

Alyt Levasin knew all of this, and he wasn't about to fall for shadow manipulation. For him, the fact that the humans were sending such a numerous force to back their words was more than proof to justify what the warriors thought. They could have sent just this vessel, but they didn't. They placed a Fleet well beyond the outer areas of the system, probably thinking that Minbari sensors wouldn't detect them. This race was certainly trying to deceive him. Moments later... He gave the order that would start it all. "Destroy it."

The Hazash'Ti came to life. Its single 725 PW Quantum Gravimetric reactor, and its four 20 PW Gravimetric enhanced fusion reactors came online. The main antimatter cannon remained on stand-by, but its four wing mounted Gravitic Neutron cannons activated, and pierced the 80,000 km of space separating them from the Aikoku Maru in a blink of an eye. The human ship flashed by its structure interaction with the highly concentrated green neutron particle beams, and a fraction of a second later exploded into tiny pieces of molten alloys.

Alyt Levasin smiled lightly on the outside, but he rejoiced internally for his first kill. 'The first of many to come' he thought. After a few seconds of savoring his victory, he gave another order. "Recall all vessels. Have the outer beacon deployment task force to analyze the possibility of attacking this small group in hyperspace." He said while pointing to the Bassae's detachment.

The order was sent, and from different corners of the system outside the heliosphere, four hyperspace vortexes activated, and from them four Tinashis emerged in hyperspace. Three of them set a course to VCB-165 beacon to rejoin the ships in orbit of the second planet defending the depot. One of them, the closest to the Bassae's detachment, made scans of the hyperspace Foucault currents and magnetic fields to determine if it was safe to make an attack at those distances.

One of the Minbari's weapons systems was the neutron beam cannon. It was an energy weapon composed of streams of neutron particles which were not affected by the strong magnetic fields of hyperspace. Normal weapons suffer from course alterations or containment field dissipation due to the influence of the magnetic fields. The Minbari had advanced enough sensors to be able to locate these fields and currents, and to calculate the effect of energy discharge on them, as the eddies or waves created by interface instabilities in the currents could tear apart ships with ease.

The scans were completed, and the Minbari Alyt in command of the Tinashi gave the order, and a single neutron beam was fired from its starboard wing upper gun. The target selected was the one farthest from it. The beam passed relatively close to the other human vessels, including the Bassae, and struck the Olympus class EAS Larkana that was a few thousand kilometers on the opposite side of the formation. The beam went right through the small vessel, but the neutron particles interaction with its structure caused a strong explosion which was amplified by the explosive plasma decompression of its reactors. The blast created a shock wave through hyperspace which momentarily disrupted one of the hyperspace currents. The accumulated energy from the disrupted flow reformed the current creating a big eddy in the location of the destroyed human ship, which in turned created a series of waves that washed away inside the numerous hyperspace currents.

The Bassae's detachment closest vessel, the Olympus class EAS Trondheim was more than two thousand kilometer from the blast, but was close to one Foucault current string, and was hit with tremendous force. The ship's starboard side, including the engines located on that area, were literally crushed by the force of the impact. The majority of the crew died instantly by the gravity imparted when the ship was forcefully accelerated away. The remaining three Olympus and the single Oracle survived because they were not near one of the multiple currents, and also because they had time to turned the ships around to face the diminishing waves. They were damaged but still operational.

On board the EAS Chiron, Vice Admiral Roger Bligh, was seeing the one sided battle develop in front of his Battle Group, and had ordered the triangulation of the beam's emissions origin. The sensors officer responded quickly.

"Sir, visual emissions detected confirm the origin of the beam at a bearing of 322 mark 349. Calculating triangulation angles from other units scans to determine distance... Sir, range confirmed at 37,000 kilometers."

While real space and hyperspace don't have a fixed ratio between them, it was commonly stated that for every kilometer in hyperspace there is in average 350,000 kilometers in real space. This makes a solar system with a real space diameter of 200 AU (Astronomical Units) or 30,000,000,000 kilometers from one border to another of its heliosphere to be a little more than 85,000 kilometers in diameter in hyperspace. So the reality was that the entire solar system in hyperspace was slightly bigger than a standard Fleet engagement area in real space. The 39th, while still outside the heliosphere, was very close to the Tinashi engaging the Bassae detachment.

"Fire a fusion missile in that heading. Set the warhead for detonation at that range, and program it to auto-detonate if hit by something beyond 15,000 km from the Fleet." ordered the Vice Admiral, his bridge crew responding immediately.

The closest Sagittarius to the Tinashi was the EAS Aetos. It was 29,000 km from the Minbari ship. The Fleet tactical coordination software automatically assigned the Aetos as the ship to perform the task, and seconds later, a fusion tipped missile left one of its port tubes, and headed towards the Tinashi at an acceleration of 1kms2, or a little more than 100 g.

The Chiron's sensor officer addressed the Vice Admiral. "Sir, missile away. E.T.A. 4 minutes."

"Do we have some visuals? We should have something at this range." asked the Vice Admiral.

"No, Sir. Hyperspace distortions are blocking everything but high energy emissions. But I can guarantee that if they were able to fire at the Bassae detachment at those ranges, then they should be able to see us. Vice Admiral, I could guarantee that the Battle Group has already been detected. They know we are here." answered the sensor officer.

The Vice Admiral sighed. "I would say it's a wise guess Lieutenant, but even though we seek a stealth approach to gain tactical advantage, we also prepare for the enemy to counter our moves. I came hoping that the enemy wouldn't detect us, but I came prepared if the enemy detected us." He turned to the communications officer and added. "Signal the Fleet. Once that missile explodes, we move forward.

Seconds later the 39th sensors detected three outgoing jump vortexes near the beacon. Time passed, and the fusion missile detonated. Small shock waves reached the Battle Group will little effect, but no clue to a Minbari ship explosion. A minute later another outgoing jump vortex opened near the Beacon, taking the offending Tinashi away. The nine Minbari ships now gathered in orbit of the second planet in defense of their supply depot, but ready to crush the pathetic human ships that were now surely going to attack them.

The grim reality of war was knocking on Earth Alliance's door for a second time in less than fifteen years. But this time with a race that had nearly twenty times the economic power of the Dilgar Empire, and hundreds of years ahead in technological level, but they weren't starting it unprepared, and the first signs of human ingenuity were now present in what would become a battlefield. A few hundred kilometers below and aft of the wreckage of the Aikoku Maru was a single spy satellites. It had been deployed by the civilian vessel when it made its transition into normal space. Its sacrifice had not been in vain.

The small spy satellite was using exclusively passive sensors. It detected background radiation signature, and adjusted its transmissions systems to match it, so that its emissions were not detected. It was feeding the 39th Battle Group with tactical data, which the ships tactical teams were already analyzing.

The 39th was nearing the beacon. The Bassae, and its three remaining escorts had rejoined formation. A shuttle had docked with the drifting Trondheim, and had begun rescue operations, but the Battle Group kept heading forward towards the inevitable. The Vice Admiral had already link via Gold channels with Earth Command, and due to the Minbari's recent actions, had been authorized the use of force in defense of Earth Alliance space.

Inside the Chiron, the Vice Admiral was making final preparations with his tactical analysis staff. The Battle computers of every vessel in the Battle Group were working in clusters to perform combat simulations with the gathered intelligence from the spy satellite. The final course of action was decided by the Commanding Officer, but before that, he had already been given the results of hundred of tactical scenarios. Many of this scenarios had a chance of defeating the Minbari, but very few off them were able to accomplish that with few losses, and those losses were always higher than the number of ships the Minbari had deployed on VCB-165. Considering that he would be engaging the Minbari in nearly 14 to 1 odds, made those estimated losses staggering. Another concern was the fact that the visual emissions detected by the passive sensor of the spy satellite was showing that the Minbari units present on VCB-165 were not as big as the vessels used on the simulation. They had no knowledge of its capabilities, apart from the fact that one of those units had the power of destroying an Olympus with one shot. In those terms the simulations were still valid, but the fact that they knew nothing about its other systems made him worry. The tactical scenarios at least gave him the knowledge that he could continue forward, instead of turning away with the knowledge on an unwinnable situation

His chosen strategy was simple. He had to distract the Minbari sufficiently so that he could deploy his Sagittarius close enough for a fast missile engagement salvo. If he was able to force a break in their formation, he would be able to do that, and in consequence win the battle. But that was easier said than done. The Minbari had their back covered by the planet. Their position in Geostationary orbit put them sufficiently far away of the planet to attempt close combat jumps, but not enough to make jumps on their backs. At least not with Earth Alliance jump technology.

The fact that real space and hyperspace had an average relation of 350,000 to 1 meant that ships that were 1km away from another in hyperspace and which then open a direct jump vortex, would appear 350,000 kilometers away form the same vessel in real space. The solution for this was that ships didn't open direct vortexes, but angular ones. This meant that when they open the vortex they angled the opening so that the funnel coincide with the same distance in real space as in hyperspace, so when the vortex opened in real space the units would still be in formation. The Earth Alliance had a lot of experience in combat jumps and in simulations, and if real space and hyperspace relation would have been a fixed one, there wouldn't be any problems, but the variability of this relation meant that even the most experienced crew could end up making battle jumps that would lead them hundreds or even thousand of kilometers away from their intended targeted jump if the sensor data was misinterpreted, and Earth Alliance sensor technology was not known for being advanced or precise.

With these considerations in mind the Vice Admiral ordered a combat jump of all Oracles with their Artemis and Olympus escorts on all sides of the Minbari Formation, except aft of them because of the technical considerations that could make their ships jump too close to the gravity well and fall inexorably towards the planet, and also except in front of them because it was where they were pointing their weapons. His units were to immediately open fire against the Minbari ships. This will force them to break formation to be able to target and engage his ships, but his units would be deployed in different vectors that would avoid the Minbari to concentrate their weapons fire. The firepower he was throwing at them should be more than enough to overwhelm the Minbari formation, but if that wasn't enough, he still had his Sagittarius, and he intended to make a battle jump in front of the actual heading of the Minbari vessels, but would make it once those ships had been force to break formation, and only if his units firepower weren't enough. He didn't expect the need to authorize a strategic missile launch, but he was prepared nonetheless.

114 ships made the jump. Single Oracles opened vortexes, and their pack formation of Artemis and Olympus lurched forward towards the vortex in a race against their jump vessel's jump capacitors that were being drained very fast. The first formation passed through with their Oracle close behind. It took a moment for their active and passive sensors to take a picture of their actual position, before the crew had any target data to be able to find a firing solution. Once the information was ready, and the location of the Minbari ships had been visually triangulated, the Earth Alliance ships opened fired with all they got.

Formation after formation jumped in, and started firing towards the Minbari units from all sides of them. The combat jump had been a success, and the majority of the units were a little more than a thousand kilometer from them. Some had obviously ended farther away, but still on visual firing distance.

The Minbari units responded quickly. The plane formation they were in, of two lines each, 4 ships on one, and 4 on the other, with the ninth unit, the Hazash'Ti deployed behind them, was reformed into a double 'V' formation, of four units each. The Hazash'Ti stayed put, the same as the center four units, the remaining four backed away with their gravitic drives set in reverse, and pointed outwards towards the attacking human ships. The center four units stayed in place but changed their heading towards the upper and lower human formations, two to each side, while the Hazash'Ti turned upwards to reinforce the two upper units that were facing the greatest concentration of human ships.

The battlefield was alight with the numerous plasma pulses coming from the Olympus, Artemis, and Oracles. The Olympus and Artemis were firing their four plasma cannons each. Each cannon was able to fire two 40 Tera Joule bolt per second, while the Oracles were firing their three dual plasma turrets, with each turret firing two 17 Tera Joules bolts per second for the whole dual arrangement. The Artemis added fire with their six dual rail guns, and the Olympus did the same with their single dual rail gun. Many bolts missed their targets, as the human ships were firing with the help of their passive sensors only. The fact that they had any chance of hitting was because they were really close.

The first surprise of the battle came to the human side when the first bolts started arriving to the Minbari formation, and the first plasma bolt struck one of the Tinashis. The bolt disintegrated before hitting the target. Several seconds later as the fire intensified when all human ships had been deployed, the Tinashis started being hit with multiple rounds, but all of those bolts lost their containment field and exploded in a shimmering field before reaching their target. It was obvious to the Vice Admiral, and every bridge officer of the Battle Group, that things were not as expected, and the Minbari ships had some kind of shielding.

The Minbari Tinashi was a very old design. It was an upgrade of the Tinash Haza Cruiser. The main capital ship used by the Minbari during the last shadow war. It was replaced in production more than two hundred years ago by the more advanced and powerful Sharlin. The Tinashi's designation as a cruiser had been replaced by that of a Frigate. While it was already relegated to secondary or escort duties, or placed into the reserves, the ship was nonetheless very advanced, and powerful. Its combined power output was 805 PW, mostly from its quantum gravimetric reactor, gave it a power output that was nearly ten times stronger than that of a Nova Dreadnought.

The ship could channel 40 percent of that power output into its weapons system, which included its main weapon, a 104 PW Antimatter Cannon, 4 wing mounted 26 PW each, Gravitic Neutron Cannons, and 8 hull mounted 13 PW each, Fusion Beam Cannons. All of its weapons where capable of very long range engagement, and were extremely precise.

Its defenses included an 8 meter thick armored hull composed of a reinforced Poly-crystalline mesh that could refract up to 60 percent of energy weapons fire, and a gravitic shield that was part of its propulsion system. The gravitic defense employed by the Minbari ship was completely different from that used by the Abbai, in that it wasn't a dedicated defense system. The Abbai employed a very advanced shield system that could defend against positive, negative and neutron particles, while the Minbari one was not able to stop neutron particles. This last one was also part of the gravitic drive, which made the shield useless when the ships were moving at full power, or relatively low powered when the ship moved at slower speeds. This was due to the fact that if the ship moved forward the entire gravitic field was at the aft section of the ship propelling the vessel making the shield at that area strong, but the field at sides and front weak.

The strength of the system came when the vessel was static, as the gravitic field could be deployed in a perfect bubble, in which the gravitic matrix had the same strength on all sides, fixing the ship in position, and projecting a very strong shield cover. In this configuration the ship could channel 312.8 PW of its reactor into the shield system, and had the ability to completely stop any weapons impact that didn't exceed 5 percent of the total power on a single spot. This meant that the ship could be hit all around the shield, and it would not be penetrated as long as the weapon impacts didn't exceed 312.8 PW, or that a single point of its shield wasn't hit by a combined weapons power exceeding 5 percent of the total, or 15.6 PJ. Only the Centauri had a similar system, but it was less powerful due to the lower strength of their reactors. The Abbai possessed a far more advanced shielding, but that was relatively less effective than that of the Minbari due to far lower energy generation, as they didn't posses quantum gravimetric reactors.

For the humans this meant trouble. The combined weapons fire of 39th Battle Group was a little higher than 31 PW of Plasma pulses, and a little lower of Railgun rounds. They probably had close to 4 times the strength to pierce a Tinashi's shield, but that would be if they were able to hit it in a single spot, and would be completely unable of penetrating it otherwise. Only the Sagittarius missiles, that some of the newer models had 342 PJ of power per missile, had the strength of penetrating their shields with force to spare. Even the more powerful Hyperion would require the combined firepower of at least three ships hitting in the same spot to be able to succeed in penetrating it. That left only the Novas with enough fire power to face the Tinashis single handedly.

Vice Admiral Bligh didn't have this information. He only knew that his ships weapons were proving ineffective. At least he had managed to force the Minbari into redeploying their Fleet. Their weapons were pointing away from the frontal areas. Knowing that his ships weapons were proving ineffective against the nine Minbari vessels, he was about to signal the Sagittarius group to jump, when the Minbari opened their first salvo with uncanny precision and devastation. Nine Tinashis fired their four neutron beams, as they were the only ones able to pass through their shields when active. The four beams from each unit struck a total of 9 human ships. 5 Olympus, 3 Artemis, and 1 Oracle were obliterated by the strength of the attack. Only because of their training, and their numbers the humans kept their composure, and maintained their formations.

When the Minbari completed their first salvo, every vessel started firing at will. Two pairs of green beams were seen connecting into a single human vessel. The Artemis blew up with the beams passing through its entire length. With the same efficiency the other Minbari units started doing the same, and human vessels were starting to be lost at an alarming rate while they had been unable to destroy a single Minbari ship.

The 39th even if its ships were old, could have engaged a similar number of Dilgar units, and come out victorious. But they were now showing a complete inability to do the same to a far inferior number of Minbari vessels. That was until the Sagittarius were order to enter the battlefield.

EAS Chiron ...

"... to all units. Full strategic release authorized. Authentication code: HEMERA – Hotel Eco Mike Eco Romeo Alpha. Initiate jump sequence immediately. Full release as soon as jump is completed." ordered the Vice Admiral.

"Vice Admiral, are we going to release all of our missiles?" asked the Captain of the Chiron.

"I'm not taking any chances Captain. Those Minbari are going to hell. If Earth Force command thinks it was a little excessive, they can put it on my credit. Those Minbari ships should already have been destroyed. I'm not taking any more surprises. We play all our cards here and now." answered Bligh.

"Yes, Vice Admiral."

The ten ships made their transition to normal space in different parts of the battlefield, but at no more than 7000 kilometers from their targets. Immediately, all their missiles were ripple fired, and from both sides of every Sagittarius a single missile was launched. When the first two missiles activated their propulsion systems a second pair was released from their launch tubes, and the fast launching process was repeated until all 28 missiles per side had been launched.

The 100 g acceleration of the missiles allowed them to cover the distance to their targets in almost two minutes, and a total of 559 missiles were now heading towards the Tinashi Frigates.

Hazash'Ti Tinashi class frigate ...

The pummeling of dozens of plasma pulses, and rail gun rounds were racketing the Hazash'Ti as if it was an atmospheric shuttle passing through a storm. The ship was stationary, but the weapons impacting its gravitic shields were causing a difference in strength in each side of the gravitic field which caused the ship to move away of the strongest part of it, and then back when the system compensated. Alyt Levasin was seated in his command chair at the center of the bridge, and was unnerved by this commotion. But still, he was a warrior, and above all believed his race to be far superior in every sense to these humans, and that calmed him.

'Their pathetic weapons are just a nuisance.' he thought, but his mind was interrupted by the sensor's officer.

"Alyt, the new arrivals are launching missiles."

"Type and quantity?" asked Levasin.

"Sensors are reading 559, and scans are showing an internal warhead configuration consistent to that of fusion based systems. They are nuclear, Alyt."

"How many?" asked Levasin again.

"All of them, Alyt. They are all nuclear, and the warhead's volume suggests enough strength to be able to destroy us." answered the sensor's officer.

"Take them down! Fire all weapons! Maximum speed and full evasive. Their plasma weapons will be able to hurt us now. Maximum power to the stealth systems, and activate active electronic countermeasures." ordered Levasin.

The Tinashi like the Sharlin had a passive ECM system that was able to scatter all active sensor emissions, making it impossible for human active sensors to get a lock, but they also had an active ECM system that was able to create sensor ghost images similar to their ships so as to confuse enemy sensor tracking, and weapons guidance systems. Part of the active defenses included electromagnetic beams that were useful in disabling fighters, or shuttles for capture, but that work well in disabling every type of sensor used by major capital ships. Both systems were useless at close range against passive sensors, except the electromagnetic beams, and the human vessels were providing the missiles with the guidance they needed, even if the missiles were still unable to locate their targets.

The Tinashis accelerated at maximum power. Their gravitic shields that were part of the propulsion system went to the aft of the vessel creating a positive repulsive charge that propelled the ships forward. They lost their gravitic field protection, but their acceleration, and ECM systems momentarily confused the gunners of the human ships which made their shots fall short.

The nine Tinashis opened fire with their eight fusion, four neutron, and one antimatter cannons. Their fire was so precise, and every gun directed to a single target, that in an instant more than 100 missiles ceased to exist. If there were any doubt from the Chiron's Captain about launching so many missiles, they were erased by the first Minbari volley.

While the anti-missile fire of the Minbari units was impressive, and strong and fast enough to be able to intercept all missiles before they reached their targets, it also forced them to bring down their gravitic shield to be able to fire all weapons, and that gave the human vessels a fighting chance. The first surprise for the Minbari came from an Artemis frigate and a couple of Olympus. The human ships started leading their shot against an accelerating Minbari ship. The plasma pulses started hitting the structure of the vessel. The Minbari armor was very advanced, but the 40 Tera joule bolts were able to boil away almost 800 cubic meters of armor per shot. 400 square meters of the surface of the Tinashi, and two meters deep were boiled away with every hit, but the 8 meter thick armor was able to hold on the onslaught. The starboard side of this Tinashi had more than a dozen glowing spots more than 11 meters in diameter were its armor had been boiled away. But the surprise came with two lucky shots from a dual rail gun turret from one of the Artemis.

The two rounds hit the aft gravitic fin, and pierced the thinner armor on that area, but the kinetic force was so strong that the gravitic system was completely shattered. The Minbari vessel lost propulsion, and the human ships were able to hit it with a far numerous number of shots. The more than ten ships assigned to this target charged all their weapons, and prepared for a simultaneous alpha strike. The plasma pulses were fired first, and struck the vessel in many places of its more than 800 meter long structure leaving the ship heavily scared, but still operational. But the 60 rail gun penetrators wreaked havoc with the Minbari vessel armor and structure, and many following plasma pulses were able to reach the interior of the ship, that a few moments later exploded with the loss of containment of its Quantum gravimetric reactor.

The tactical teams on board the vessels of the human Battle Group were working frantically in analyzing the combat data being received, and one of these teams had already identified the reason for the Tinashi loss of propulsion. Combat targeting data was being filtered through the tactical net, and human gunners were receiving new information on their targeting displays. At the beginning of the battle they were only able to see the image of the Minbari ships, but now, the image had a priority targeting reticle in the aft area of the vessel. The gun operators assigned their weapons to that area, and the guns adjusted their vectors to concentrate fire on it.

The Minbari ships which had been concentrating fire on the approaching missiles were forced to recheck their priorities when two more Tinashis were destroyed. The missile salvo had been severely weaken, and Levasin ordered three Tinashis to keep firing at the missiles, while the Hazash'Ti and two other Tinashis turned to face the human ships. The armor of the Minbari ships were glowing in several areas of impact from plasma pulses, and had been shattered where rail gun round had struck, but their ships were still operational and making the humans pay for their trespass.

Green beams crossed paths with plasma pulses and rail gun round. The first impacting and destroying a human ship, while the second only sum to the damage being received by the Minbari ships.

Those human ships engaging the Tinashis facing the missiles had an easier approach to their targets, and had been able to destroy two more Minbari frigates. But the others had paid heavily with the loss of many vessels, as the Minbari were now attacking with all of their weapons.

With only one Tinashi firing at the approaching missiles, the human weapons had been able to cross the distance to their targets. The first struck the port wing, and detonated breaking it in half. The Minbari frigate tumbled with the force of the blast, and wasn't able to stabilize its position when a second missile buried in the nose and detonated with such force that the entire frontal area of the ships was destroyed. Two more missiles passed through the debris, and detonated inside the vessel completely destroying it.

The remaining 87 missiles changed course and headed for the last three Minbari ships. The battle scene was very intense with heavy weapons fire from both sides. Many humans ships were destroyed, but another Tinashi fell to the concentrated fire of the human Battle Group. The remaining two vessels were battered, and human fire was intensifying because there were now more human ships per Minbari ones. One of the two remaining Tinashis was firing its four port fusion beams towards the approaching missiles, and was reducing their numbers fast, but was unable to cope with the damage received by the human ships. It soon lost all power, and its service life ended by the impact of five fusion missiles which completely disintegrated the frigate.

The Hazash'Ti was the last Minbari ship left. It was scarred. Fumes were venting and tailing the ship from hull breaches. Its two starboard side neutron beam were disabled when two rail gun rounds struck the root of the assembly. But the ship was still firing from its port neutron guns, its single antimatter cannon, and six of its eight fusion beams. It was making the humans pay dearly for the loss of its brothers. The frigate accelerated at full power, and change vector to present the aft area of the ship to the main human formation. There, the gravitic shield worked at its best, and the human weapons were impacting it without consequence. But from below the Hazash'Ti, a group of human ships that had made their combat jump a little farther away were approaching the Minbari vessel with all guns blazing.

The Oracle EAS Pythia with the Artemis EAS Potnia Theron, and the Olympus EAS Hephaestus, were ready to return the favor to the Minbari for the loss of the Hemera and Eileithyia. Both units of the original Pythia Detachment. They were accompanied by two other Artemis that were not from the original detachment, but nonetheless ready and willing to impart retribution.

"Alpha strike linked. All vessels firing." said Lieutenant Commander Erin Cunning to Captain Jeff Easum.

"Recharge and fire again. Alpha strikes only. Overwhelm their aft section. Keep it at them, Erin! Don't let them breathe!" ordered the Captain.

"Yes, Sir!"

The five vessels opened an alpha strike in unison. Many shots missed, but a lot struck the ventral area of the ship with heavy force. Many rail gun penetrators shattered the lower armor, and many plasma pulses were able to go through, but the Minbari ship kept going. It was at that moment when one of the few missiles remaining struck the Hazash'Ti on its reenforced aft gravitic field. The ship was lurched forward by the explosion, and the situation on the bridge was chaotic as the gravitic cage was unable to compensate for the g forces.

"Alyt! Alyt!" shouted one of the bridge officers, and Levasin slowly stood up.

"Report!" he shouted.

At that moment another Alpha strike from the Pythia detachment struck the ventral section all along the ship's length, and the vessel's structure made a loud complaint.

"Alyt! The ship is heavily damaged, but the jump engines are still operational. Should we open a vortex?" asked his second in command.

"And retreat in shame? No! If we have to die, we'll die with honor. We'll teach these humans whom they are dealing with." answered Levasin.

"But Alyt! There are still several missiles approaching. We'll not be able to outrun them."

"Then turn the ship around, and bring them down. Then re-deploy the gravitic shield. We'll see if without their missiles they can hurt us."

Outside the ship, things looked completely different. The Hazash'Ti was heavily damaged, and the Pythia detachment had close the distance and made another attack. This time the gunnery officers made their shots count, and a lot of rail gun rounds impacted the aft gravitic fin but from below, its armor was completely penetrated. The Hazash'Ti went dead in space, but the following plasma volley struck the same area breaking the ship in half at the gravitic fin. The ship continued being struck by heavy weapons fire, but it was now reached by the few remaining missiles, and one after the other ended Alyt Levasin's quest for glory. The Hazash'Ti disintegrated with the force of several fusion detonations which brought the Battle of VBC-165 to an end.

On board the EAS Chiron things went quiet for a moment. The loss of life was devastating, and the disparity in technological level was demoralizing. The Vice Admiral realized at that moment that he was completely wet from sweat. It had been a nerve racking experience that even the most seasoned of commanders found difficult to endure, and it had lasted just a few minutes. He saw the emotional state his crew was in, so he reacted immediately to avoid the situation sink too deeply.

He activated his Fleet wide communications system, and said. "This is 39th Battle Group Actual to Group Commands. 155th and 156th Groups are to commence search and rescue operations immediately. Use every available shuttle to do the job. As soon as the operation is complete, you'll jump towards Vega system to transfer the wounded, and to prepare for defensive operations. 153rd and 154th Groups will transfer their wounded via shuttle to 155th or 156th ships, and will then rally to the Minbari supply depot. We are going to commence salvage operations of every single Minbari container. We'll then jump, and transfer the containers to a yet to be determine star systems to avoid endangering Vega in case they contain some kind of homing beacons. Execute. 39th Actual, Out."

Human forces had been victorious, but the price paid had been very high. A total of 68 ships had been destroyed. 36 Artemis, 24 Olympus, and 8 Oracles. A kill to death ration of 7.55 to 1 in favor of the Minbari, but on a 14 to 1 odds in favor of the humans. Things didn't look good for the Earth Alliance. The Minbari ships had proven to be even more powerful than expected, and if it hadn't been by the missiles launched by the Sagittarius, it would have been a devastating defeat as the Oracles would not have been able to charge their jump engines before the Minbari would have wiped them out.

For the moment though, the Minbari spearhead had been destroyed, and the Vega cluster was still under Earth Alliance control.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

-Durabys asked me if I could show sketches of the non-canon ships like the Nova II and III, so I decided to show every ship in my story. You can check them in facebook with this name: Babylon 5: A new beginning. I would recommend every reader to do so after reading the last chapter of the story. I won't remove this note so newer chapters will appear and will show newer ships that may spoil the story if you see them before reaching that point in the story. Especial thanks for David of Wolf's Shipyard for his help.

...

- One thing I'm changing in this story is the space covered by every race. In canon, the Minbari Capital of Minbar is located in the Chi Draconis system, which is a little more than 25 light years from Earth. Deneb a human colony is the star Alpha Cygni, which is approximately 3000 light years from Earth. For me it's just ridiculous to consider Minbar so close. It's just not possible for the two races to never have been in contact, when their two homeworlds are so few light years apart. Their colonies should be even less, and if we have colonies more that 3000 light years away … well you get my point. If I where to keep to canon, the entirety of 'babylon 5 series' races would be contained in a 75 light year cube. In this story. I'm using an area of almost 12,000 by 12,000 by 1,000 light years. Our Galaxy has approximately: 7,854,000,000,000 cubic light years. The area I'm considering for this fic is: 144,000,000,000 cubic light years or 1.83 percent of the total. The area used in canon would be approximately 421,875 cubic light years or .00000537 percent of our galaxy. I know that both options have risks, but I strongly believe that mine will make the story more enjoyable. I'll keep the name of the star systems to canon, but not the distances. So I'll leave the why of the names to your imagination.

- Now canon number of colonies is more credible. While a 421,875 cubic light years or 75ly by 75ly by 75ly would give more stars than mentioned in cannon, the probable colonizable number of planets is somewhat believable. My option will give millions more, so I have to give a justification for this. So here I go:

1.- We colonized space using optical terrestial planet finder systems, like the ones used today. We determined which systems were more likely to have a terrestial planet and we sent ships there and bingo we where able to find more habitable planets than if we had sent expeditions to every star system, which just for reference our galaxy has more than 200,000,000,000 stars.

2.- So why are we now sending ships to explore all star systems?, Well because we acquired a lot of quantium 40 (used to open jump points) reserves from the Dilgar, and by using them in exploration of other star systems, we'll be able to find more systems with the precious mineral to fuel our expansion even further, and with the new Mothership program, we could also use them for resource gathering.

3.- If we were so close to the other civilizations, they would have found us long ago just by searching for the source of radio signals ….

... so in short: bigger space used, same names, but not corresponding to the star in reality.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's notes:**

- This chapter was supposed to include what will now be chapter 5, but it was getting very long, so I decided to split it. The bad news is that this one will be very technical, and hard to read for people who are not tech or info freaks (like me). The good news is that chapter 5 is almost ready, and giving a little spoiler: It will be a full action packed chapter.

- Especial thanks to Susan Hilton for making this story readable.

* * *

**Chapter Four**

**Earth Alliance – Sol star system**

**Earth - Geneva**

**EFNI (Earth Force Naval Intelligence) - Headquarters**

**August 12, 2245**

Admiral Donald Ferguson was seated in a meeting room with the Head of the Earth Force Naval Intelligence, Admiral Roger Donovan, and the Director of the Earth Intelligence Agency, Victor Chapel. Ferguson had been sworn in as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff nearly three years ago to replace Alexei Denisov who had retired. President Elizabeth Levy had almost been forced to beg for him to accept this position, as his heart had always been on the bridge of a ship.

The three of them were reviewing data, and making decisions on how best to proceed with the Minbari situation, a situation that was rapidly escalating into an all out war.

"I had my teams working around the clock to analyze yesterday's battle. We were victorious, but the victory had been tarnished by the heavy losses we'd incurred. The tactical and strategic considerations of the engagement will occupy EFNI for years to come, but we have been able to at least determine our ships' chances against them and with the help of the EIA to establish a set of strategies and actions that will allow us to engage them to our best of capabilities." said Admiral Donovan, He was one of the youngest Admirals, and had gained his position as head of EFNI for his tremendous brilliance in tactical and strategic scenarios during the Dilgar War, which helped end that conflict faster than anticipated.

"Let's hear it Roger. The President is waiting for Mr. Chapel and me to give her our recommended course of action." stated Ferguson.

"OK. Let's proceed then. Everything works around our ships, so let's start with them." said Donovan straightening in his chair. "We'd been running thousands of simulations since yesterday with every computer core available in EFNI, and we've added the new information gathered from this new ship. The Minbari vessels, even these smaller ones, are tremendously powerful units. The bigger ships which we are designating as dreadnoughts, should be considered even more powerful than the smaller ones which we are designating as destroyers. We are making this assumption based only on the increased volume and displacement of the dreadnought, and on the battle damage done by their beams during the Pythia incident."

"We have been able to clearly identify their destroyer's capabilities, and we have increased the tactical strength of their dreadnought accordingly. We've been able to recreate simulated Minbari vessels in our analysis programs to the point that we got almost the same results from a simulated engagement with yesterday's battle as a scenario of the simulation. Once we got that right, we started testing every single one of our ship designs against the Minbari destroyer."

"We are currently running battle scenarios with different strategies to allow every single of our designs to be able to stand a fight against their destroyers. But we have at least concluded our one-on-one engagement analysis of our units against only the destroyer, and things are not very comforting."

"The Oracle is our least capable unit against them. Its weapons were not even able to penetrate their armor, and even a single Destroyer's beam would be able to put one out of action. The Olympus and Artemis are also unable to penetrate the Minbari destroyer's armor with their plasma weapons, even though they are able to inflict heavier damage than those used by the Oracle. Their rail guns on the other hand had proven able to penetrate it, and were instrumental along with our missiles in defeating them, especially when hitting them on what we have determined to be their gravitic drive. Both units are also very vulnerable to their beam weapons, as a single shot will most certainly destroy an Olympus, and heavily damage an Artemis or probably destroy it."

"Our Sagittarius are quite capable of destroying one of their destroyers in a one-on-one engagement, provided that they make their missile launch no more than 3000 km from them. Above that distance, the time required for the missiles to reach their targets is more than enough time for the Minbari destroyer to intercept every single one. Engagements at increasing ranges will require the use of more than a single Sagittarius per Minbari destroyer. During yesterday's battle, our Sagittarius launched their missiles at more than 7000 km. They forced the Minbari units out of their defensive stance, which allowed our other units to inflict damage when they redeployed their gravitic fields. If there wouldn't have been other units present, every single missile would have been intercepted. Thanks to them, some of our missiles reached their targets, and every single hit proved devastating against their vessels, as every impact in the body of the destroyer proved at least incapacitating."

"Up to this point, the information I have given had been corroborated by both the actual engagement and through simulations. For the rest of our units, the results are given exclusively by simulated combat."

Donovan gathered his thoughts before continuing while Ferguson and Chapel listened intently. "Both, Sagittarius and Avengers are completely useless without their missiles and fighter complements, as their weapon systems are exclusively defensive in nature. While the Sagittarius missiles are very fast compared to the Avenger star furies, these last ones can be equipped with fighter based anti-capital-ship missiles that while far inferior in power compared to a ship based one, the numbers used have proven capable against Minbari units in simulated engagements. The Sagittarius has a small edge in fire-power and engagement speed, but against shield protected Minbari units in defensive stance we believe our Avengers to be considerably inferior than the Sagittarius, as the star furies missiles are not believed to be strong enough to penetrate it."

Ferguson raised his hand, and asked. "Sorry to interrupt Roger, but on what assumptions are you saying that?"

"As you said, it's only an assumption. We won't know until we have gathered more data on their gravitic propulsion field strength. Our star fury based fusion missiles have a warhead strength of almost 7 PJ compared to 342 of the ship based ones. During the battle we were able to hit their shields with plasma pulses and rail gun rounds with a combined strength inferior to a star fury fusion missile, so we could say that this missile should be able to penetrate it, but the last Minbari destroyer was hit in the aft section by a ship based missile and the gravitic field was able to hold. We know that at that time the entire field was in the aft section, so while the Minbari ship was rocked from the impact, we also know that the shield was not penetrated, and considering the nature of gravitic drives, at least of what we know of the Centauri designs, it will affect every positive and negative charged weapon systems. We believe that only neutron particles passed through that shield. So, we are guessing that the energy required to penetrate their shields while in defensive mode is to be at least stronger than the impacts received by our units or 4 PJ to one fourth of our capital ship missile strength, or 85 PJ. This range suggests that our star fury missiles should not be able to penetrate their shields, unless we use concentrated attacks. Now, if their ships are on the move, the gravitic field is useless for defensive purposes unless engaged on the aft section. Our missile equipped starfuries should prove very effective if we are able to keep the Minbari ships moving." answered Donovan.

"So, they are not actually shields? I mean, they are not like those fielded by the Abbai?" asked Ferguson.

"Yes and no. Yes they are shields in the sense our E-Webs are shields. While our E-webs don't stop incoming fire, they only disperse them, forcing the beam to affect a larger volume of armor. They are still a shield system, and while the Minbari ones won't stop every kind of particles as the Abbai ones, they still act like shields while deployed. And, no, in the sense that the Minbari and Centauri systems are a result of their propulsion drives. While the Centauri are able to deploy a similar gravitic field around their vessels, they rarely use it as it will impede the use of their weapons that are positive and negative particle-based ones, but in the case of the Minbari, they seem to have neutron particle-based cannons, for they were able to fire through their shields while these fields were stopping our weapons. When they detected the approach of fusion missiles, they might have calculated the chances our warheads had against their ships, and that's probably the reason they brought down their fields and accelerated to be able to use their other weapons that we guess might have positive or negative particles, and in consequence were unable to fire through. So they are not as the Abbai shields in the sense of dedicated defensive systems, but still a good commander could exploit the capabilities of their gravitic drives to employ them like ones." answered Donovan.

"So we need to keep them mobile, or force them to fire their other weapons?" asked Ferguson again.

"Yes, or just overwhelm them with heavy fire, like in the case of the Novas."

"OK, go on." added Ferguson.

"The Hyperion is the first real multipurpose unit in the Fleet. Its twelve missiles and six fighters make these vessels inferior in missile fire-power to the Sagittarius, and fighter strength to the Avenger, but it should be able to bring one of their destroyers down single handedly using only their plasma weapons, provided we are close enough to make our shots count and away from their forward vectors. A Hyperion is able to fire an alpha strike with a strength of 4.4 Peta Joules, nothing compared to our Novas, but considerably superior to every other unit we have mentioned. If we add their missiles and fighters, we should be able to complicate things for the Minbari, but only at short ranges. We'll obviously be completely overwhelmed at medium and long distances."

"The Nova and Nova II are considerable threats for the Minbari at ranges not exceeding 10,000 km. Their alpha strikes are enough to bring down one of their Dreadnoughts, especially the Nova II, which can fire all 20 dual plasma cannons, and its two plasma mortars on their forward vector. With their 72 missiles and 36 fighters, we should have enough strength to deal with them as long as we don't exceed those ranges. Above them, we'll depend exclusively on missiles and fighters, and we'll be forced to engage them with superior numbers. But still, with the speed of our plasma pulses, and the acceleration detected on Minbari ships, we should try to make every energy only based engagement, inside a 300 or 500 km range."

"The good news comes with our Nova III. They are the only units we have that are able to engage the Minbari in every envelope. Up to 200,000 km the unit that fires first would win. Above that, the Minbari sensors slowly start turning the odds to their favor, as they don't have to cope with emissions travel delay as our passive sensors have. Also our reactors are not as strong as theirs. The Minbari destroyers were able to fire all their weapons constantly, and some of those are close in power to our Nova III particle cannons, and we believe that those equipping their Dreadnoughts should be even more powerful. Our reactors allow our particle cannons to fire once every 15 seconds, so if we don't hit the Minbari first, we'll most probably be destroyed. In short ranges, we should be able to match them, as we have sufficient reactor strength to fire enough plasma pulses to destroy one of their vessels." finished Donovan sighing.

"I guess that sigh of yours means problems?" asked Ferguson.

"Yes. Two." answered Donovan.

"What are they?" asked Ferguson again.

"One, we need better sensors for every unit except the Nova III, and two, we only have 573 Nova III. If we don't upgrade our units with the EMS/STL system our chance of detecting and engaging the Minbari at ranges above 3,000 km are very low, and would make even a saturation missile strike impossible without something to vector our missiles in. Also, having a little more than a Fleet strong of Nova III limits our operational capabilities considerably. We just can't give to one Fleet the responsibility to engage the Minbari. We need those sensor upgrades, but we desperately need more Nova III. All other units will only buy us time, as I don't think that the Minbari will make it easy for us to fight at close ranges when their units are especially designed to fight at a distance." answered Donovan.

"You must add a third. Three, the president won't allow the 1st Fleet moved away from the defense of the Sol system, especially Earth when we know nothing about Minbari numbers, and little about their capabilities." added Ferguson, and Chapel nodded.

"I was guessing that. Is there a way of convincing her otherwise?" asked Donovan.

"Maybe, but I won't try. If we lose Earth, we lose any chance of defeating the Minbari, and while I understand the fact that the 1st Fleet is the only unit that can make the Minbari bleed for any incursion into our territory, the fact that every other vessel is close to useless at long ranges will make the use of our only capable Fleet a priority for defensive operations on the core worlds." answered Ferguson.

"I understand that Donald, but I can guarantee you that the losses we suffered in the Vega Cluster will be infinitesimal if we allow the Minbari the initiative. If they attack us at long ranges, we could lose a Fleet to a few Minbari destroyers. We were victorious because we attacked them at close range. We dictated the terms of that battle. If we would have jumped 10,000 km away we would have lost every single ship, and we would have been unable to destroy any of their vessels." refuted Donovan.

"Then we have our objectives very clear. We have to make those units capable of fighting their destroyers and dreadnoughts, and we must force the Minbari to fight on our terms." stated Ferguson.

"Our losses will be very high, Donald. We need the Nova IIIs" said Donovan.

"I know, but they'll be even higher if we learn to fight the Minbari with our best units." Ferguson sighed. "You remember the Battle of Balos?"

"Of course." answered Donovan.

"The Seventh and Forth fleets were ambushed by Jah'dur, and lost 75 percent of their vessels and were forced to retreat. We had close to half a million people on the planet that thankfully joined the Balosians underground, or it would have been a massacre. Admiral Hamato tried to break the blockade, but he went with one thousand less vessels of what he could have gone with, and Jah'dur broke his formation with suicide ships and forced another retreat with heavy losses. The one thousand ships he didn't take were old mothball vessels that were ready in Earth Alliance space, ships that are now part of the 9th, 10th and 11th Fleets, and we didn't send them because we thought that we would be risking people. That they'd be slaughtered in them, when the reality would have been that those vessels could have turned the tide of that battle. We could have defeated Jah'dur at that moment, but we didn't. Instead we lost our most powerful units to heavily armored and nuclear packed suicide frigates. We learned Jah'dur's new strategy with our top-of-the-line vessels."

"The thing is that the Earth Alliance invested heavily in those ships, and they were never used. That is something I don't intend to let happen again. If we lose a million people fighting in less capable vessels to allow the Alliance to fight back, then I will personally give the order to make them fight, and if I have to give an example by manning one of those ships I would also do it. The Dilgar war showed us that we must be more analytical and less emotional when dealing with a war. Yes, we could lose a million, but if they save billions, I will gladly volunteer to be one of them."

"Until we know how they fight, we'll be making a great deal of mistakes against them, and I won't use the 1st Fleet just to gather experience, because by that time, we may have a fraction of its strength left, and we'll be forced to fight with older and less capable units. I also want the Minbari to face one unit, and then force them to adapt to a newer and capable one, and have them again to adapt to a newer and capable one, and so on. That will keep them off balance. I will also not dilute our only capable warships to boost the strength of the other Fleets. When the Minbari face them, they will face pure fleets of ugly looking bricks with a pair of heavy particle cannons spitting venom at them. Shock and Awe, Roger. All the other fleets unable to fight on even terms will follow a with our strength and against their weakness strategy. We will plan battles where we'll dictate the terms, and where we know that even the least capable of our units will be able to harm them." finished Ferguson with a definitive tone, and then asked. "Now, what can we do to bring our entire Navy up to speed against them?"

Donovan sighed, but understood Ferguson's point of view. If they were facing just a border skirmish, using the 1st Fleet's Nova III would avoid heavy losses, but if they were facing an all out war with a numerous Minbari Navy, then Ferguson's course of action was the only one. He just hoped for the first, but as Head of the Naval Intelligence community, he knew that things were probably already out of hand, so he answered. "There are technical, industrial and strategic considerations to take into account."

"From a technical standpoint we need to upgrade all of our Nova II to Nova III configurations. The Nova IIs are the backbone of the Fleet with more than 1,500 units available. The addition of the particle cannons in substitution of the plasma mortars, and the integration of the EMS/STL system on all weapons will be relatively inexpensive compared to building a whole new Nova III, and will allow us to field at least four full fleets of Nova III in a relatively short time."

"The Nova will be expensive to upgrade to a Nova III standard. Its structure is different to the Nova II, so I'd recommend to keep them with their current configurations, but we should add the EMS/STL system. For the Hyperions, I would recommend doing the same. For every other unit, I would make upgrades via Fleet tenders, and I would only install the EMS/STL trackers for long range guidance, but I wouldn't waste time integrating it into its weapons, as they are too short ranged to require the enhanced precision to make any difference. For those units that have long range capabilities like the Sagittarius via its missiles, and the Avengers via its fighters, I would assign the newer variant of missiles and fighters equipped with the EMS/STL."

"Another modification I would recommend for the Avenger is doubling its fighter capacity. As you know the Avenger was introduced in a time when exo/endo atmospheric capable fighters were still in widespread use. That's why its hangars are wider than those used on the Hyperions. The star furies will be a little cramped, but we should be able to deploy two per hangar for a total of 96 fighters per Avenger. I wouldn't recommend that if they were operating at long ranges like we did during the Dilgar War, because of the increased personnel required to man and maintain the extra starfuries, but in this case, so close to home bases, we shouldn't have any problems, and the modifications should be easy to make by fleet tenders." finished Donovan, and nodded to Victor Chapel to continue.

"The EIA and EFNI had been working closely lately to try and make a solid front against the Minbari. Roger has specified the upgrades required to make our Fleet effective against them, but if we are unable to out fight them, then we have to at least outproduce them to beat them in a war of attrition. We haven't received a formal war declaration from the Minbari, and I'm sure that there will be many Senators who would try to justify everything to try to avoid us going into war spending again, but recent actions shows that we are heading that way, and we should be prepared." said Chapel.

"For that purpose, and from an industrial point of view, we are recommending an increase in our defense spending to bolster our shipyard capacity. This will allow us to upgrade Nova II into III, and to considerably increase Nova III production. There are some things that I have been discussing with Roger about our Motherships that have me worried. We designed them to be able to add modular shipyard modules so that we could channel our war spending budget into them, but with the way the Minbari fight, we would like to readdress that strategy." added Chapel.

"What do you mean?" asked Ferguson.

"The Astrum class mothership has a sufficiently strong missile, fighter and turreted plasma mortars, that would allow one of them to repel a 100 ship strong Dilgar raiding party. That's enough firepower to force an enemy like the Dilgar to commit a very strong force in order to be successful, but still the Astrum has sufficient firepower to cover its retreat in case it can't handle its opposition. But with the Minbari things are different. A single one of their destroyers is able to destroy an Astrum before its missiles or fighters reach the aggressor, and its plasma mortars that have the range to force Dilgar units into facing their devastating power will be useless against the Minbari weapons range." answered Chapel

"The number of motherships deployed should allow us great redundancy if one is lost, but due to the fact that our Motherships are deployed in the Sol-Proxima Beacon cluster, the Minbari should be able to explore adjacent systems to Sol and Proxima relatively easy if they are able to reach this far out. But the real problem is that if we add the 20 shipyard modules we wanted to add to the Astrum, it would make the mothership immobile, as the mass of the shipyard will be too much for it to handle, and would force the Astrum to detach itself from it in order to be able to escape. That takes too much time, and will defeat the purpose of the Mothership program as a means to protect our citizens. Losing 32,000 people if one is destroyed is not acceptable if we can avoid that."

"What do you propose then?" asked Ferguson.

"As you know, one of the priorities of the Mothership program is its self-sufficiency. Every single person living in one of those ships has been guaranteed every basic need: Housing, food, clothes, education, health, etcetera, but those things are not supplied through taxes, because if someone's business is not working out, then they wouldn't be paying taxes to guarantee them, and if our economy is destroyed, then it's even worse. On the Astrum every citizen is required to invest between three to four hours per day of work in different areas of the mothership to keep its systems and services operational, or if you are doing fine with a business inside it, then you are able to pay for them, but on average every citizen is unavailable for almost four hours just to keep the mothership going. That gives the Astrum, let's say another four hours per citizen of available time for other activities like shipbuilding. That's 128,000 man hours per day without counting rest days that each mothership can devote for ship construction."

"Those numbers will allow an Astrum to produce nearly three and a half Nova IIIs per year, and with 132 of them available that's almost 470 vessels per year. Four shipyard modules per mothership should be more than enough to produce that amount of ships every year. That's about two Nova III every 200 and something days. Adding four shipyards would allow the Astrum to be completely mobile with them attached, and if we start detecting Minbari ships reaching the Sol-Proxima cluster, then we can order them to move to other pre-constructed mining facilities on other planets far away of any of our beacon clusters. We will obviously have to construct those mining facilities elsewhere, even if we don't man them."

"Another positive thing about this is that we should be able to completely eliminate the need to ferry personnel and supplies to these motherships, because they should be able to produce everything for themselves, and that will considerably reduce the risk of Minbari vessels following our transports to their destination." finished Chapel.

"That sounds good, but I believe that we are going to be needing all of our resources to battle the Minbari, and the Earth Alliance economy in a war spending should allow for a far greater number of ships to be constructed. Where do you plan to place the rest of the shipyards?" asked Ferguson.

"Well, we know little about the Minbari, and almost nothing about where their colonies are, so until EFNI is able to send recon missions into their territory, and the EIA is able to break their codes to gain some kind of intelligence about the location of their bases, we can safely say that were are going to be focusing on defensive operations until we are able to do that. In that case, we can devote at least 25 percent of our economy to shipbuilding. With our actual defense spending we are currently able to build 257 Nova III per year. With 25 percent more, we could build approximately a little more that 2,400 Nova III. That's more-less 2,670 Nova III per year once we have all our shipyards operational. For the moment we have 257 shipyards constructing one Nova III each per year. We could produce 470 more vessels on the Astrums, and there are enough unassigned shipyards available in the Alliance to immediately start constructing another 417 Nova III. That leaves as short of approximately 1,500 shipyards."

"We propose to construct them on Earth, Proxima III, and Orion VII, but mostly here on Earth. We have focused our colonization effort on Proxima III and Orion VII during these last 10 years, and with the help of our multipurpose Novas, we have been able to move out of Earth approximately 410 million people while constructing the infrastructure required to maintain them. While that gives those colonies strong economies, their orbital defenses are still not strong enough to guarantee an engagement with the Minbari. But Earth currently has 10,787 Global Orbital Defense Satellites of which 1,445 are MK II with particle cannons, and with its more than 200,000 starfuries should be able to protect the shipyards against even a threat as the Minbari. Either way, Earth still represents more than 89 percent of our economy, so losing it would still make shipyards deployed else where to stop operations due to lack of resources and funds."

"Also, the modular shipyards are designed to be produced on smaller planetary based facilities, and then its modular components are ferried to orbit via capable shuttles and assembled there. Earth is the only planet with enough industrial capacity to be able to produce that amount of shipyards in 6 months." finished Chapel.

"OK. I understand, and I like the idea of having our Motherships mobile and able to re-deploy on short notice. Do you have anything else to add?" asked Ferguson.

"Yes," answered Donovan. "We want to program ship construction to be divided by days. Let me give you an example: If we have 365 shipyards, then I propose building them at a rate of one per day, instead on 365 in one stroke and then wait another year for a second batch. The reason for these would be our training facilities. If we bring ships on a daily basis, it's easier to train the crews without saturating our installations as would be the case if we receive a huge amount of them in a go. Many shipyards will be coming on line at the same time, so it will be difficult to accomplish this at first, but we propose that some shipyards just construct some part of the vessels, and then have those parts move to other shipyards so that we can slowly move our production on a daily basis."

"Sounds good, and that will also help the logistics of preparing so many ships for operations at the same time. Nice thinking. Any thing else?" replied Ferguson.

Donovan nodded. "Yes, from a strategic point of view, we need the President to activate the emergency beacon protocol immediately. Every day that passes will allow the Minbari to get a better view of our planetary positions. The Vega cluster is already compromised. They already should have a good picture of how many planets they have to explore. Its only a matter of time until they find Vega, but many of the other clusters shouldn't even be seen by their sensors from the Vega cluster. We need to activate the protocol now. "

"That will be my first recommendation. What about new technology? Are we anywhere near of having a new upgraded variant of the Nova?" asked Ferguson.

"I have been in contact with Dr. Shouri of our Research and Development Division, and he says that we should be able to start construction of a Nova IV variant in a little more than a year. That ship would be including advanced sensor systems based on those used by the Hyach and Abbai, and it should be able to field in replacement of the plasma cannons, a hybrid ion pulse – particle beam weapon. The Particle mode should allow us great range on all vectors, and the ion mode should allow us a stronger gravitic containment field for plasma bolts giving our pulses stronger power, speed, and range." answered Donovan.

"The remainder of the systems recovered during the Dilgar War should make it into a Nova V in a little more than three years culminating with the Nova evolutionary process. We expect to include on those ships, the advanced Abbai shields, Gravimetric enhanced fusion reactors, artificial gravity in replacement of our ferries wheels, and probably a secondary propulsion system in the form of a gravitic drive." added Donovan.

"There is no way in decreasing those time frames?" asked Ferguson.

"He says that for the Nova IV, the equipment is already finishing prototyping, and that a fast paced demonstration validation phase is being considered for that time frame. The reality is that it could be longer. For the Nova V, he says that the science around the remaining components is already well understood, but that they still have some way to go to start designing prototype components, especially with the shields and gravitic drive. Once they have that, they have to build a prototype, demonstrate and validate it, while at the same time make the modifications to the Nova IV frame. In this case the new components will considerably modify the Nova that we could almost consider it a class on itself. In short, we shouldn't get our hopes to high, at least not on the Nova V. We'll be depending greatly on the Nova III design." answered Donovan.

"Well, at least the Vesuvius subclass has proven capable in the simulations." stated Ferguson, but then added. "Keep some pressure on Dr. Shouri. It won't hurt us fielding those designs earlier."

"I will." said Donovan.

The three of them finished identifying their priorities, and spent nearly an hour preparing the report with the help of several EFNI analysts.

**Earth Alliance – Sol star system**

**Earth - Geneva**

**Earth Dome – Presidential Office**

**August 12, 2245**

It was late in the afternoon. President Elizabeth Levy had been analyzing the recommendations brought by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and by the EIA Director for almost the entire afternoon. The two men had left her office nearly half an hour ago, and her staff were already preparing the necessary equipment required to record a speech to be broadcasted by every major news channel.

She was standing; leaning on one side of the window, looking outside with a perplexed look. Lake Geneva was shimmering with the light of the setting sun. She was waiting for her staff to finish, while thinking of the gargantuan task that had been delivered to her shoulders. It was these moments that confirmed the slow transition from a democratic presidential based government system to a meritocratic council based one. It was obvious to her that such a task could not rest in the hand of a single individual. Even though she had a lot of advisers, it was her final decision that would set things in motion. It was too much of a responsibility for a single person. It was clear to her now that the federal meritocratic government that had been slowly installed at the Motherships and Colonies was a good step towards a solid, knowledgeable and distributed government.

She subconsciously took a deep breath to release her stress. Images of the Dilgar War came to her memory. She remembered the massive operation that was required to bring those brutal Dilgar to their knees, and now she was informed by her advisers that the Minbari were far more advanced than they. President Dieter Hauser had had a rough time with the Dilgar, and she trembled to think what was in store for her now. The battle footage taken at the battle of VCB-165 gave her goose bumps and she broke out in a cold sweat at witnessing so many Earth Alliance ships destroyed by so few Minbari vessels.

She remembered her experience on board the EAS Vesuvius during its particle cannon testing, and almost cried after seeing the incredible foresight of Earth Force commanders. During the meeting with Admiral Ferguson and Victor Chapel, she didn't have to be convinced to agree to the immediate boost of Nova III production. Every part of the EIA report presented to the Senate more than ten years ago had been proven correct, and her trust on Earth Force and EIA leadership was complete.

Everything was ready, and she took her seat in front of the camera. She had already given the orders to execute the recommendations brought by Ferguson, and she was about to make them public. The situation with the Minbari gave her especial emergency powers, and even though this speech would probably come as a surprise to many Senators, since only the Vice President, the Senate Majority Leader, and Senate President Pro Tempore had been notified, they would still have to ratify her orders later, but for the moment, a very cold bucket of water was about to be released to the entire Earth Alliance.

She straightened in her seat as one of her aides made the final touches to her make up. The monitor in the camera where she was to read her speech showed the countdown. The number three appeared followed shortly by a two, and finally: one.

"_Fellow citizens of the Earth Alliance. During the last few weeks, we have been trying to contact the Minbari with the purpose of presenting our deepest regrets and apologies for what has come to be known as the Pythia incident. We received no reply. A few days ago, nine Minbari ships entered Earth Alliance space near the Vega system on beacon 165 of that cluster. An Earth Force battle group was dispatched to ascertain their intentions. The military ships waited in hyperspace as to avoid an aggressive posture, and an unmanned civilian vessel entered the system with the intention of initiating communications with the Minbari. The ship was destroyed without warning. Our military forces proceeded forward with numerous vessels to force the Minbari to define their position towards us. Our ships were attacked in hyperspace again without any kind of warning, and without our vessels showing any kind of aggression towards them. Earth Force ordered the battle group to protect Earth Alliance space. _

_Yesterday, August 11, 2245 – Earth Alliance ships engaged the Minbari in combat. A fierce battle ensued, resulting in the destruction of the offending vessels, and the capture of what has been determined to be a supply depot. The presence of this depot suggests that the Minbari were preparing an offensive into our space. I regretfully inform you that as of yesterday, a state of undeclared war exists between the Earth Alliance and the Minbari Federation._

_With the emergency powers vested in me during times of crisis, I have ordered Earth Force into the highest levels of alert, and the activation of the beacon system emergency protocol. Our economy will gear itself for a war footing, and ..." _The President continued her speech trying to calm the population and justify her decisions reminding them that every effort to reach a peaceful solution would be sought.

Half an hour later, she sat resting her head on her desk. The lights were dimmed, and her staff had left. She had asked her personal assistant to leave her alone for a moment. There were surely a lot of people looking for her, but she needed a little time. She knew that things were already in motion, and that the government could get along for a moment without her. The Fleet was surely canceling shore leave and getting ships ready for combat, and others ready for upgrade.

Earth Force was also surely delivering the new procedures for civilian vessels traveling through hyperspace. The beacon system emergency protocol was now in effect, and as soon as every ship that hadn't been given the new protocol arrived to their destinations, the beacons would start to slowly shut down, especially those on the main colonies. Only three beacons on every cluster would remain operational, and they were to be constantly shifted. Every ship would now have to triangulate their position with those three beacons to determine the location of their destinations, and they were only given the coordinates of star systems on a per fight plan basis, and would require a new set of coordinates for every trip, as the operational beacons in a cluster were to be constantly shifted to avoid the possibility of captured data to be used to identify the coordinates of a habitable system. The combinations were enormous, and it guaranteed that no one could jump on a habitable system without extensive exploration.

Ships would no longer be able to travel at will through Earth Alliance space as beacon triangulation coordinates would only be given to registered space craft, and would only be emitted by Earth Force personnel. It was a drastic measure for a free society, but a needed one. Jump gate operation was also affected, as the variability of hyperspace meant that triangulation coordinates while able to send a vessel to a star system, was no where near as accurate as pinpointing the location of a jump gate in it. So as the ships approached a star system, they would have to use short range communication systems to determine the location of the gate prior to activation of the jump gate. These procedures would certainly make hyperspace travel more hazardous, so while it was not enforced, the protocol suggested that civilian ships travel in groups to not only divide gate fees between them, but also to guarantee the safety of damaged vessels.

She straightened up, and activated the ISN feed. She wanted to see the reaction her speech has had with the population, and was surprised to see that while there was tension around the subject, people were mostly expecting the Minbari to stand down, and accept the fact that everything had been a misunderstanding. Little did they know that their leader had been killed in that incident, and that they had no intention in backing out. On the contrary, they had all the intention of taking it to its ultimate conclusion, and that the losses they'd incurred in the last engagement had infuriated them beyond understanding.

**Minbari Federation - Chi Draconis binary star system**

**Battle Station "Valeria" - Orbital Command**

**Geostationary orbit above Yedor.**

**September 15, 2245**

More than two months had passed since the Minbari started preparing their forces for war. Shipyards all over the Federation had been recommissioning ships from the reserves to assemble the first offensive fleet. The relatively small number of shipyards available to manage the task, had forced the Grey Council to authorize the expansion with newer ones to guarantee the maintenance requirements of the defense fleets, and to continue expanding the recommissioning operation. There was no change to ship production operations other than those required to produce transports, as the ships in the reserve were deemed more than enough to defeat the humans, as every engagement they had been in during the last thousand years had not required the use of even a hundred vessels.

In orbit of Minbar, near the Battle Station Valeria, ships from the 1st Attack Fleet were assembled and ready to depart. The Minbari used three standard formations: The 9 unit strong detachments, the 81 unit or 9 detachment strong Battle Groups, and the 729 unit or 9 Battle Group strong Fleets. The ships being assembled into the 1st Attack Fleet were only 364 Tinashi class Frigates, and 45 Sharlin class War Cruisers. There were only 5 Battle Groups assembled, with the sixth forming, but last month's losses required a response. They only waited for the 5th Battle Group to finish assembling and for crew members to finish training. Already several detachments had arrived to Earth Alliance space or where on their way, but the core of the 1st Attack Fleet was still in orbit.

Inside the corridors of the Battle Station Valeria, Sineval and Durlan were walking towards one of the Hangars escorted by several warriors.

"Yes, Alyt. We have been expanding our shipyards, but what few of them had become available are being assigned to maintain defense fleet vessels. The shipyards that handled that job are being used to bring reserve ships on-line, and our defense fleet vessels are suffering from lack of proper maintenance. I can't step up our recommissioning operation without severely hampering them." stated Durlan.

"We need more ships Durlan, and we need them fast." said Sineval.

"I know Alyt. But we also need transport ships to support the operation. We don't have enough of them not even for a single Fleet operating at those distances. We are doing everything we can." said Durlan and then asked. "Are these humans powerful enough to require so many ships? I thought they were primitive."

"It's not the humans I worry about. It is the number of systems we are being forced to reconnoiter."

"Why?"

"They have shut down their beacon network, but its not strategic and tactical concerns you should worry about, but of our logistics." answered Sineval.

"I understand Alyt." said Durlan bowing.

They reached the hangar, and Sineval stopped before continuing towards his shuttle. "The Grey Council has given you free hand over our logistical operations. You have no constraints of resources. It is your judgment that will define the course of our expansion into Human space. Take heed to our requirements or you may put us into a difficult situation. Logistics are important, but so are the number of operational vessels in the front." he sighed. "You are a respected member of the Worker Caste, Durlan, but you have little understanding of military matters. We need more ships on the front, or our progress will slow to a crawl."

"I do understand your requirements, Alyt, but I can't create shipyards out of thin air. If you want ships, then take them from the defense fleets. Otherwise, you'll have to wait for our industry to expand to required levels. I will concentrate my effort in expanding our shipyards. Good day, Alyt. I wish you safe journey." Said Durlan stomping away in frustration.

Sineval stood watching Durlan as he went away. He sighed, and turned around resuming his trip to the shuttle.

A few minutes later, the small Minbari shuttle left the Valeria, and headed toward the concentration of ships, and arriving to a Minbari Sharlin class War Cruiser named Trigati.

He stepped out of the shuttle to be greeted by his second in command.

"Alyt, Sineval. Welcome aboard."

"Kalain." said Sineval bowing slightly, and then asked "Are we ready to depart?"

"Yes, Alyt." answered Kalain.

"Send the order. We are to depart immediately."

"Are we in command, Alyt?" asked Kalain.

"I have been informed that the Drala'Fi will soon join the 1st Attack Fleet. A Shai Alyt will be assigned to it from one of the defense fleets, and will be given command of the attack fleet. Until then, we are in command. Send the order." answered Sineval.

Kalain bowed respectfully and left immediately for the bridge.

Moments later, the ships in orbit of Minbar started to approach the jump gate. The 1st Attack Fleet formed in line, one detachment after another. Each of the detachments was lead by a Sharlin, and the remaining eight vessels were Tinashis. Some detachments had already gone forward towards Earth Alliance space, and some were already en-route, but still more than 40 were on their way to the gate.

The jump gate activated, and ships started to make the transition into hyperspace. It took some time for every vessel to pass through, but soon the nearly 400 ships were on their way to Earth Alliance space. Sineval was ecstatic with the number of ships in battle formation. He had only seen this amount of vessels gathered together in orbit of a planet or during rare fleet training exercises, but never in hyperspace, and definitely never heading for a battle and under his command.

His thoughts went into the task at hand. His feelings of invincibility permeated the bridge, and now his thoughts were directed to the humans. _"You will now know whom you are dealing with. I will soon make you pay for murdering Duhkat." _


	6. Chapter 6

**Earth Alliance Space – Vega Cluster**

**Vega Cluster Beacon 37**

**October 17, 2245**

During the past few weeks, Earth Force had been preparing for what was certainly to be the first Fleet to Fleet engagement with the Minbari. They knew that apart from the Nova IIIs, Earth Alliance vessels had very little chance against them unless they forced them to fight on unfavorable odds. They needed to prepare a battlefield that played to the strengths of Earth Force vessels, and to the weaknesses of the Minbari units. It was easier said than done, as the requirements to make an equal battle with such an advanced foe were daunting. They needed to force the Minbari into a close range fight and against superior number of units to compensate for the lack of firepower and range of the older Earth Alliance ships.

The information gathered by the exploration missions of the stars that made up the Vega cluster was studied with a lot of detail, and a system was found suitable to implement the strategy. It was located less than 10 light years from the Vega colony, but on an upward vector in relation to Vega and Minbari space. The Vega cluster was a sphere of almost 20 light years in diameter encompassing a total of 165 star systems that had already been explored, and each marked by a beacon. Before the Battle of VCB-165 all beacons had been active, and had given the Minbari a decent knowledge of the relative positions of the stars that had to be explored to locate Earth Alliance colonies in that cluster.

During the last month, Minbari units had been arriving in force, and if one were to imagine the beacons of the Vega cluster like a sphere of green dots for those systems that hadn't been visited by the Minbari, and red for those who had, then one could see a smaller oblong half sphere of red dots that had already penetrated close to 5 light years into the bigger green sphere. The sensor systems installed in the beacons, and initial exploration satellites deployed in those systems, had already confirmed hyperspace openings in nearly 30 systems. That meant that the Minbari had already determined the status of those systems in particular. The Vega Cluster Beacon 37 had just one star in the way of the border of that expanding oblong red sphere.

There wasn't much time until the Minbari reached VCB-37, and the Earth Alliance Navy was making fast preparations for a special welcoming ceremony.

The star system had a massive gas giant in orbit, with its mass nearing that of a brown dwarf star. One of its moons was a smaller gas giant that was still bigger than Jupiter. The mass of the planet and its big gaseous moon wreaked havoc on the other local moons. Many had extreme volcanic activity due to the gravitational forces exerted by the two monsters, and the gases expelled from those moons formed a densely but spread out field of particles all around them. Other moons had been literally torn apart creating an extremely packed asteroid field orbiting the planet and its biggest moon. Only one moon located at the L4 Lagrange point between the two Goliaths could be considered stable, but orbital mechanics had deposited a great deal of the asteroids and particles in that area too. As a matter of fact, that moon was considered to be formed by gravitational aggregates from those same asteroids and particles.

The moon currently named VCB-37-IIIG, because it was located at the third planet from the sun, and it was the seventh moon from that planet, was the selected site for the pre-arranged meeting with the Minbari. Its position in the L4 Lagrange point meant that it always had the two gas giants flanking it, and the stability of said position also meant that a great deal of asteroids and particulate matter had densely gathered around it, and all along its orbit.

The strong gravity of both gas giants has also forced the moon into a gravity lock with them. It had no rotation, and that played in favor of the Earth Force strategy, as the side facing the area beyond the triangle created by the two gas giants and the moon, had been used to install several communication emitters to mimic the constant communication chatter of a colony. That same face represented the only clear approach vector from hyperspace, as every other area with the relative exception of both polar regions, had either the gas giants or densely packed orbital asteroids fields covering them.

Earth Force also installed a jump gate beyond the asteroid field of that face hoping that the Minbari would try to approach through that area to block the gate, and to avoid exposure to the asteroid fields. Between the jump gate and the planet was a dense but relatively thin asteroid field, at least when compared to the other sides as it was still more than 30,000 km thick. Between the moon and the asteroid field was also a relatively clear area in orbit where the majority of the Earth Alliance ships had gathered.

Every ship from the 9th, 10th and 11th Fleets had positioned itself in orbit, with the exception of the Avenger class carriers and their escorts. The vessels in orbit included a total 157 Sagittarius class missile cruisers, 89 Oracle class cruisers, 560 Artemis class frigates, and 147 Olympus class corvettes. The 58 Avengers, 2 Sagittarius, and 173 Olympus remaining had been positioned outside the systems Heliosphere as part of the overall strategy.

Supporting the ships in orbit, but deployed inside the asteroid field that was between the moon and the jump gate, were a total of 19 Mark I GODS, and 3 Mark II GODS, all hastily transferred from those in orbit of Earth, and the last ones had only been authorized for deployment to test their capabilities in a real combat situation.

Every vessel had been deployed in detachments composed of 2 jump capable per 5 some 6 non-jump capable vessels on average.

In orbit of the moon, the last few Cotton class fleet-tenders still performing sensor upgrades for the ships of the fleet, had already finished their work or were about to. Some of them were already en-route to the jump gate to return to the Vega colony, and from there to the Signet beacon cluster. Transports and tankers were also coming and going to supplement the fleet-tenders in refueling and rearming ships, as the last ones were concentrating mostly on finishing the upgrades. Transports also ferried replacement crews as many veterans were being assigned to newly built ships, and one of them was towing a Mark I GOD satellite into position in the asteroid field.

**VCB-37 – Outside Heliosphere boundary**

**EAS Akagi – Avenger class carrier**

**Flag ship 9th Fleet**

**That same time …**

The Akagi was the Flag ship of the 9th Fleet, and because of that had been equipped with especial command and control features. Admiral Otto von Koester, was several meters behind the Captain's command chair. He was seated securely latched in the 0 G environment of the ship close to the 3D main display in front of him. The big old man had his piercing blue eyes fixed on the projection. His squared rugged German features made him look like a deadly special forces operative than one of the oldest Admirals in whole of the Earth Alliance Fleets. This alone made him a very respected officer, as very few could hold a stare from him, and even though he didn't have the same battle simulation results as the Admirals assigned to the lower numbered Fleets, he had still gained this position through merit, and as one of only eleven admirals commanding a Fleet meant that his tactical and strategic brilliance was on top of very many officers.

Seated beside him was Lieutenant Commander Agnar Kofoed. He was born on Earth in the small city of Akureyri on Iceland. He was the tactical officer assigned by EFNI (Earth Force Naval Intelligence). He was also a P3 rated telepath, one of many ex-Psi Corps members that transferred their commission into Earth Force. He had been given his current rank as a measure of making a swift transition in a just way. The telepaths had been forced into Psi Corps, and it was considered unjust for them to start at the bottom when it wasn't their fault first of being forced into the Corps, and second to be forced to start a new life when the Corps was disbanded. He had to pass the qualification requirements into Earth Force, but he had been given his rank not only based on previous experience but also for merit on his exemplary performance. His tactical brilliance and keen intellect soon earned him a position in EFNI.

"Is something troubling you, Admiral?" asked Kofoed.

The Admiral didn't take his eyes from the 3D representation of the Vega Cluster, but answered with a distinctive German accent. "The wait, Agnar. The wait." He paused, and sighed. "The uncertainty of what's to come."

"We have prepared for this the best we can, Admiral." stated Kofoed.

"Have we? When our best ships are defending the core worlds or being upgraded? No, Lieutenant Commander." he said shaking his head. "We haven't prepared for this the best we can, but the best with what we currently have."

"We have run thousands of automated simulations to prepare for this, and we have made live operational simulations with this scenario. The Minbari are very advanced, and we may suffer terrible losses, but we can defeat them here." replied Kofoed.

The Admiral turned to see Agnar. "The number of jump vortexes detected by our beacon sensors and recon satellites run in the hundreds. We could be engaging from 100 to 500 ships. If it's the latter, I'm afraid that not even if this operation goes flawless, we'll be able to beat them. Yes, we have run thousands of simulations, and if it was the Dilgar, I would say: They are in trouble, even with the ships we have. But this is not the Dilgar War. We are not going to position our fleets in front of the Minbari as we did back then. We are not going to move forward and engage the enemy for minutes or hours, maneuvering and counter maneuvering. The Minbari weapons ranges, rates of fire, and precision will make battles that normally took possibly hours, to be decided in seconds or just a few minutes."

"You saw what happened in VCB-165, we outnumbered them nearly 15 to 1, and they were still able to destroy more than 7 ships for every one they lost. You are a smart man, Agnar. If they engage us with 500 ships, we'll be outnumbering them a little more than 2 to 1. We'll have no chance of victory against that."

"Then, Admiral, it'll be a hit and run tactic; the same as in simulations. If we can't beat them, we hit them as hard as we can, and we run away. We only need to buy time for our shipyards to finish the upgrades, and any Minbari ship destroyed is a ship they have to replace, and every ship damaged is a ship they have to repair. It may not be enough but we have to draw a line for the Minbari, and we'll be the first to do it, even if our ships are not up to the task. We just need to saturate their defensive systems. It will be hard, but we control this battlefield. We should be able to through enough variability to keep them guessing, and our tactics are working to our advantages and against theirs."

The Admiral sighed. "Lets hope your people got the simulated Minbari units right, otherwise all those simulations are useless, and this will be a short and bloody battle."

"We believe we have their destroyer's specs on target. Their dreadnoughts are something that we'll have to find out. We have made the best extrapolation we can make with the data at hand, so we should be fine, but we'll still have to find out." replied Kofoed.

The Admiral didn't answer because at that time the closest star to them in the 3D projection turned red. That meant that an incoming hyperspace vortex had just opened in that system. There were no more star systems between them and the forward deployed Minbari units. He started working with his console and said. "Admiral Boyarskaya of the 10th Fleet acknowledges that phase I is a go."

At VCB-37-IIIG, the communication emitters went active. Normal short range radio waves were starting to fill the solar system, but some tachyon-based emitters were also on, and as soon as the Minbari unit that had just entered the adjacent start system, returned to hyperspace, it would be able to pick it up, or if there were any other enemy units close enough to that star, they would also be able to do so. The messages were in standard civilian frequencies without encryption, carrying a constant request to increase the number of transports sent to the colony to speed up evacuations with the excuse that they had detected Minbari units close by. They also sent a message that they had no other choice but to activate the beacon to allow all transport to reach the system faster, as there was no more time. A few seconds later, the beacon at the gate activated, and illuminated VCB-37 in hyperspace like a lighthouse.

Phase I was now on, and the tension in the fleet was noticeable. Admiral von Koester turned to Lieutenant Commander Kofoed, and asked. "Do we have some estimates on how much time they need to get here from that star?"

"Our ships would make it in under 28 hours on 1 G acceleration without stopping or slowing for transition. We have detected Minbari outgoing jump vortexes, and then incoming ones in adjacent star systems with almost the same distance with as low as 40 minutes difference. So anything in between is a good guess." answered Kofoed.

"Nothing more precise?" asked the Admiral again.

"Their acceleration during the battle of VCB-165 was even higher than that of our missiles. We were only able to hit them because our missiles had already accumulated a great deal of speed. We saw acceleration in some of their units of 830 Gs. If they can keep that kind of acceleration up, they could get here in minutes. It will only be a guess, Admiral. I just can't tell." replied Kofoed. He paused for a moment, and then looked intently at the Admiral without risking a scan. "We are woefully outmatched, Admiral. That much we know, but we have to stay positive. They are not invincible."

The Admiral sighed, "I am positive, Lieutenant Commander. I am, but I'm also realistic, and I'm responsible for the lives of every one in this Fleet. The units we are assigned to are not up to the task. We were supposed to be using them as exploration vessels, and now, even though the fast response Fleets had been upgraded, we are still being given their responsibilities."

Kofoed couldn't stop thinking that even if the simulations were a great tool for modeling tactical and strategic scenarios, the amount of defeats suffered against the Minbari during them had affected the Admiral's confidence, but he was also right about Earth Force assigning these Fleets to the task that was better suited for those equipped with better units. "I understand your concern, Admiral. But we need those ships upgraded if we hope for any chance of victory against the Minbari, and I know that the 8th and 7th Fleets had been upgraded, but the 8th is covering one of our Fleets positions in the Signet and Deneb cluster bordering the Koulani while it is being upgraded, and the 7th is deployed in place of another to be upgraded Fleet in the Dakota cluster covering any Minbari possible approach from the New London, Canton, Myoto, and Berlin Clusters. Clusters that just have a few scouts from the 7th Fleet for any kind of defense. We have 3 Fleets on this cluster, or let's say two and a half as the 11th is not at full strength, but we still control a huge amount of missile and fighter firepower. We won't be engaging them head on, Admiral. We'll hit them point blank. We have a very good chance of defeating them, even with the ships at hand."

"Yeah, only if we are able to lure them where we want." replied the Admiral. He straightened up, and added in a serious tone. "We'll do our part in this operation. Let's hope we can keep our sanity after it..., if we survive."

A couple of hours passed, and the Minbari unit in the adjacent star system hadn't entered hyperspace again, but one of the hyperspace probes deployed in direct line of approach to that system ceased to transmit. That meant that it either malfunctioned or another Minbari unit had picked up the signals, and was already approaching the beacon and had eliminated the probe.

Admiral von Koester zoomed in on the projection of VCB-37 hyperspace representation. The sphere of stars disappeared, and in its place a total of 14 hyperspace probes were seen deployed around the star system forming a sphere. One of them ceased to transmit sensor data. He inputted some information in his console, and the 3D display was split in two. In one side it kept the local hyperspace representation, and on the other the area around the Planet where Admiral Boyarskaya had the main fleet elements. He could see the position of the Global Orbital Defense satellites, the gate, and nearly 300,000 km all around that area. All of what he was seeing was also probably in the eyes of Admiral Boyarskaya.

The probable breach of the hyperspace perimeter by Minbari units signaled the start of phase II, which meant that the 9th Fleet elements outside the heliosphere were to go into total communications black out. They were only kept updated by the incoming sensor data from the hyperspace probes, and the units in orbit of VCB-37-IIIG.

On board the Sagittarius class EAS Philyra, Admiral Elizaveta Boyarskaya was looking at the same split 3D image. When on the one representing real space, she could see a hyperspace opening more than a hundred thousand kilometers from the gate, and in direct line to her ships.

"Sensors. Give me a zoom on that ship. Display it on the main screen." ordered the Admiral.

The sensor officer worked fast, and on the main flat screen in front of her, and beyond the captain's chair, the distinctive silhouette of a Minbari Tinashi class frigate was seen. A unit currently known by Earth Force as a Minbari destroyer.

The Admiral sighed. She straightened in her command chair and then ordered her EFNI tactical officer seated beside her. "Let it scan us. Let it send its intelligence, then jam it and take it out of my sight."

"Yes, Admiral." replied the Fleet Command tactical officer.

The Minbari unit powered up its powerful sensors, and started to systematically scan the entire area around the orbit of the moon, including the gate. It was able to detect different types of emissions not only from the planet, but also from its orbit. The emissions were consistent with what they knew were human ships, but it was unable to determine the quantity and type of units involved since they had conveniently shielded themselves behind many large asteroids.

The Tinashi started relaying its findings to the Trigati, the Minbari current local fleet flagship. It was a momentary assignment as a Shay Alyt in command of the Drala'Fi was already en-route to the Vega cluster. But all that the Minbari frigate was seeing was being relayed towards it. Barely a minute of high powered tachyon-based transmissions had passed when a massive burst of multi-wave jamming emissions emanating from the ships in orbit of the moon struck the Minbari vessel. It lost communications capabilities, as the drones in hyperspace were also blanketing the area with wide-area jammers.

The sensors of the Minbari ship were barely readjusting when behind three asteroids beyond the ships in orbit, three Mark II Global Orbital Defense Satellites activated their thrusters and moved away from cover. The more than 600 meters long satellites triangulated the Minbari ship position via their EMS/STL system, and one of the units fired the first particle canon in a combat situation. The satellites capacitors drained their energy into the large particle accelerator synchrotrons or accumulation rings, which in turn use the energy to accelerate heavy particles and then feed them to a collector and into the weapons barrel. The entire weapons length of nearly 400 meters then acted as a linear accelerator driving the particles to relativistic speeds and into the target.

The muzzle of the GOD satellite lightened up, and the first combat discharge of a particle cannon erupted from its barrel. The bright orange beam, a color gained by the properties of the heavy cesium particles used, covered the distance to the Minbari unit in less than a second. The beam struck the Minbari vessel from the frontal starboard side. Its crystal armor was no match for the 384 Peta Joules total discharge of the beam. The accelerated particles not only pierced its armor but went through its internals and out of the port side of its gravitic drive. The beam's shock-wave tore through the Tinashi's internals breaking the structural integrity of the main quantum gravimetric reactor. The matter compressed in the small singularity was released into the vessel with catastrophic effects. The Minbari frigate's fate was first witnessed when the internal inferno burst out of the pierced sections of the ship, which was then followed a fraction of a second later by an impressive explosion that reduced the ship into component parts.

While a particle cannon acted like a relativistic rail gun of particles, and the damage imparted was done mostly by the kinetic energy carried on those particles, their speed was so great that even if no extreme heat plasma explosion was vented in its interiors like the case of plasma or ion weapons, the shock-waves generated could literally tear a ship apart, and in this occasion that was precisely the case.

The combat test of the particle cannon and EMS/STL system was a success, and was very well monitored by the forces in orbit. Admiral Boyarskaya ordered the immediate relay of the combat data so that Earth Force could at least have that information in case the operation met with failure. Both Admirals in their individual ships couldn't hide a smile, and gave them and their crews a huge morale boost, and to the officers at least the knowledge that there was some hope in battling the Minbari.

**Hyperspace – Near Earth Alliance Vega beacon 37.**

**Trigati Sharlin class war cruiser – Flag ship 1st Attack Fleet.**

**Holographic sensor projection room.**

**Two hours later ...**

Sineval was standing besides Kalain inside the holographic representation of hyperspace.

"Do we have any contact with the reconnaissance vessel?" asked Sineval.

"No. Alyt. The jamming prevents any communications with it. It may still be performing scans of the system, or... it could have been destroyed." answered Kalain.

Sineval turned to look at Kalain, and said. "The humans don't have weapons that could have hit our ship at those ranges, and even if they had, their primitive sensors could not have locked into our unit at those distances. They are a primitive race, Kalain. There must be another reason." He then ordered. "Send fighters ahead to clear those jammers, and a detachment to jump ahead."

Kalain bowed, and linked to the bridge to relay Sineval's orders.

In the holographic image Sineval could see the fleet's deployment from which a Sharlin and its 8 Tinashi escorts accelerated towards VCB-37 followed by a total of 45 Nial class fighters. 15 from the detachment itself, and 30 more from two other Sharlins to take out the probes.

It didn't take too much time for the Nials to wipe out the Earth Alliance probes, but even if the jamming from hyperspace was over, they still had no contact with the recon unit, so a few second later the nine ships of the detachment made the transition to normal space. A total of 9 jump vortex opened releasing the detachment ships a few hundred kilometers apart from each other, but still more than 200,000 km from the gate. A few seconds later they started scanning the area, and found trace materials consistent with the hull of a Tinashi. They searched the area for mines or other possible weapons, and only found the jamming emissions from the orbit of the moon.

On the Trigati, Sineval ordered the Fleet to position itself above the detachment deployed in normal space, and ordered a burst communications signal to contact their units. Being in the same position as the other units but only separated by the normal space and hyperspace barrier the signals were able to beat the human jammers with no problem.

"Report." ordered Sineval to the detachment commanding officer.

"Alyt, we have thoroughly scanned the area, and have detected traces of our Tinashi, but no reason as to its destruction. We have detected human emissions from the moon and its orbit, and believe the humans are hiding their vessels behind asteroids." replied the officer.

"Cowards! If they intend us to enter the asteroid field to ambush us, they are in for a big surprise. They are more stupid than I thought." Sineval broke away from his spoken thoughts, and ordered the detachment commander to move ahead and cover the gate, and he then turned to Kalain. "Have the Fleet jump ahead of the gate in a wall formation. We'll start making some target practice of those asteroids, and see what the humans do when they lose their cover." he said with a laugh. "Let's see if they can cross the entire width of the field before we wipe them out." he added with a sneer.

The detachment reached the gate, and seconds later hundreds of jump vortexes opened releasing the majority of the Minbari ships deployed at the Vega cluster. A total of 51 Sharlin class War Cruisers and 408 Tinashi class Frigates were now deployed in a standard Minbari wall formation between the border of the asteroid field and the gate.

**EAS Akagi – That same time …**

The huge wall of ships appeared in the holographic projector's real space side, and Admiral von Koester knew it was the moment they had been waiting for. The Minbari ship numbers were more than he had expected, and that shook his resolve, but their positioning couldn't have been better, and that at least gave him some hope. The Minbari numbers and disposition determined the battle scenario to be followed, so he immediately gave the order. "Release the Sagittarius, and signal the Fleet ready to jump."

A few seconds later the two Sagittarius currently assigned to the 9th Fleet entered hyperspace through a single vortex. As soon as the missile cruisers reached hyperspace they immediately rippled fired all their missiles, and the Sagittarius with the charged jump engines opened another vortex into normal space outside the Heliosphere, but several thousand kilometers away from the 9th Fleet. The two ships returned avoiding the massive shock-waves that would wreak havoc in local hyperspace.

The missiles accelerated at maximum trust into different directions. Some cut their engines as they reached their position before the others, but as soon as a multi-layered sphere of 112 missiles was formed, they all detonated their powerful warheads starting from the outside to the inside. The first explosions magnified those of the second layer, and the second ones did so with the third at the core of the sphere. The shock-waves concentrated so much energy from the hyperspace currents in the center that the resulting energy waves would affect a very large area of the hyperspace region close to VCB-37.

Earth Force could not risk an interception in hyperspace, so they had probably wasted 112 missiles if there were no Minbari units there, but it was a guarantee for the operation to proceed with the least amount of risk as it was possible.

**EAS Philyra …**

The Minbari had started firing against the asteroids, but the 30,000 km width of the field, and the jamming made it very difficult for them to actually hit one of those they were using as cover, but the huge number of units firing would make that irrelevant in just a few minutes.

"This is 10th Fleet Actual to all missile units. Commence operation. Fire at will." ordered Admiral Boyarskaya.

The 157 Sagittarius assigned to Boyarskaya started ripple firing half of their missiles, and in a few seconds a total of 4,396 missiles had been launched and were heading towards the Minbari positions at cruise speed, but skimming in cover of every asteroid in between.

The Earth Alliance still had older missiles in stock, and half of the Sagittarius magazines consisted of them, but the other half were comprised of the newer variant of missiles designed for the new Nova batches. They had the same warheads, and engines, but their sensors included the EMS/STL system. The new navigational computers included a limited artificial intelligence which made them capable of evasive maneuvers to avoid point defenses hitting them. A lesson learned during the Dilgar War where thousands of missiles were lost to interceptions.

**EAS Akagi …**

Admiral von Koester was watching the holographic projector. The data link to Boyarskaya's units was being received through a constantly modulated frequency that was perfectly linked to the Fleet jammers. It was a signal surfing the frequencies being buffeted by the jammers, and that allowed his units to receive the data stream without problems. He could see the missiles cruising towards the Minbari units, and was waiting for them to reach a predetermine distance that would allow his unit to synchronize the attack.

It didn't take much time for that to happen. The crew of every ship was ready, and the Admiral gave the order. "Lieutenant Commander, give the signal. All units execute jump."

The ships linked their navigational computers to perform a simultaneous jump. Jumping into hyperspace without specifically adjusting the vortex directions could make some units make the transition on the same position and be destroyed. Jumps from hyperspace could be made manually as the difference in size of space made it highly unlikely that ships will open a vortex in the same position, but it was also not risked. But jumping into hyperspace where the space was much smaller meant that ships vortexes could easily get tangled in between, so Fleet jumps were normally linked to avoid such occurrences, even in emergencies.

The Avenger class carrier had a relatively stronger reactor strength, at least compared to the Sagittarius and Oracles, but what made it special was the jump capacitors which were bigger and with a stronger charge capacity. This meant that even though it had stronger reactors than the other two older units, it still took more time to charge the jump engines to capacity as their capacitors were far bigger, but it also meant that if they were not discharged completely, they could still be used to jump again if necessary, or wait for smaller periods of time to make a partial charge for jump. For this reason, a total of 58 jump vortexes opened towards hyperspace to move the carriers with their escorts individually, and without requiring two jump capable units to take turns in opening them.

The 9th Fleet made the transition, and the ships immediately felt turbulence in hyperspace, it was the remnant of the cleansing volley, but it wasn't as bad as an atmospheric shuttle cruising through a storm. The vessels kept formation cruising from outside the heliosphere boundary and into their designated jump positions at the third orbit, while at the same time, the missiles in normal space cruised the 30,000 kilometers towards the border of the local asteroid field.

While cruising toward their positions, the Carriers charged their capacitors for another combat deployment. From each side of the Avengers a total of twelve double doors opened to show a total of 48 hangars; two tightly packed starfuries in each one. This new configuration had strained the operational capabilities of the ship, as it was only designed to carry one in each, but due to the fact the it had been originally designed to carry one exo-endo atmospheric fighter which were far wider due to their wings, the engineers had been able to rearrange the locking clamps to add another set. It was a very cramped configuration, but allowed for each carrier to deploy a total of 96 starfuries each.

Slowly the fighters started taking off in perfect order. Each fighter was the newer variant of Nova class starfuries equipped with the atmospheric flight module in the back, and a total of twelve weapons slots each. Eight were certified to carry small anti-fighter missiles, while the four inner slots were capable of holding the bigger anti-ship missiles, and each fighter was packed with them. The atmospheric module was kept for this operation, as it would allow the fighter a greater acceleration in the hit a run tactic being sought, even though it somewhat hampered flight performance and was not normally carried by the space-borne units.

It took just a couple of minutes from jump to full deployment, but the 5,568 fighters were now in perfect formation around their carriers, and the Earth Force units readied themselves for the first Fleet to Fleet engagement with the Minbari.

Admiral Von Koester watched his holographic display and saw the missiles still cruising towards the asteroid field border heavily engaged by Minbari weapons fire. A couple hundred had already been destroyed, even with the heavy evasive flying of the new missile variant. He activated his Fleet wide com, but no encouraging message was to be sent, as they were still guarding electronic silence. Only a single green blip was shown for every other carrier. Every one knew the drill, and would rely on their battle management systems to get the necessary data for the operation, and with this knowledge the Carriers set to open their vortexes.

**EAS Philyra …**

"Do we have a fix on their Flagship?" asked Admiral Boyarskaya to the EFNI operative besides her.

"I think so, Admiral. They are no longer transmitting. It seems that their orders had been sent, and they are just concentrating on our missiles. But when they arrived, there were five units with stronger emissions, but one above the rest. If I were to target one, it would be this one." answered the EFNI Lieutenant Commander locking a bracketed dot in the holographic projector.

"Good. At least this part of the operation has gone well. Our missiles have pinned them down as we hoped. You know the drill Lieutenant Commander. As soon as the 9th Fleet makes the transition take out their head."

"Yes, Admiral."

"Prepare the Fleet for jump. Once the 9th Fleet is here, wait 20 seconds for the carriers to clear the way, then we jump."

**Trigati Sharlin class war cruiser …**

Sineval stood besides Kalain. They were both watching the missile volley approach. The holographic space around them was alight with green weapons fire. Neutron and fusion beams were lashing out towards the asteroid field trying to bring down the skimming missiles, but the density of the field meant that they had little line of sight against them, and the majority of weapons fire was striking the asteroids themselves. The explosions and debris sometimes crippled a missile, but the majority brought down had been due to the extremely fast and accurate Minbari weapons.

"Should we order the Fleet to move backwards?" asked Kalain.

"No. Those missiles are not enough to threaten us." answered Sineval.

"There are a lot of them Alyt."

"And a lot of us too. We have more guns than missiles approaching. Once they clear the cover of the asteroids it will be over in a few seconds. Then we'll concentrate on their Fleet's cover, and see if the humans have the guts to die defending their colony."

"Should we at least send our fighters forward? Just in case." asked Kalain again.

"No, Kalain. If we do so, we'll be compromising our fire arcs, we'll have to worry about hitting our fighters." Answered Sineval. "We'll stand here, and show them that no matter what they do, it is over."

"Yes, Alyt." replied Kalain bowing slightly.

"Did you know, Kalain, that this race was responsible for defeating the Dilgar? A race that was said to be unbeatable. A race that wiped out the entire League's Fleets, and that these humans rolled them over in just a few months?"

"Yes, Alyt, I've heard."

"Well, I'm not impressed, and if this is all the humans have to offer, then I guess the Dilgar were also a pathetic bunch."

"They did destroy the Hazash'Ti and its escorts." replied Kalain.

Sineval snorted a laugh. "You saw the feed from the communications relay. They were heavily outnumbered, and the humans paid dearly for their deaths. Let's see what they are able to do to one of our fleets." he laughed again. "We'll teach them how warriors make war..."

An alarm sounded in one of the holographic room control stations. The Warrior manning it raised his head from the display and said. "Jump points forming..."

"Where?" shouted Sineval, but at that moment the back of his head was illuminated by blue light. He turned his back to the asteroid field where the approaching missiles were about to emerge, and saw several jump vortexes forming behind his ships. They were spaced to cover almost his entire formation. "Come about! Port to missiles! Starboard to jump points! Target the vortex, and bring down any ship that comes through!" ordered Sineval. But where he expected ships, there came nearly a hundred X shaped fighters from every vortex. The human starfuries started blossoming from them using their lateral thrusters to expand their area of approach, and the last of them hadn't even cleared the vortex when the first arrivals started releasing their missiles.

The timing was perfect, as the missiles launched by the 10th Fleet had reached the border of the asteroid field, and their blue plasma engines went white when the missiles accelerated at full power. The first came out of the field with their lateral thrusters working in short burst forcing the missile into a deliberated erratic approach to target, and complicating matters for the Minbari tracking systems.

The warrior manning the communications console in the Trigati, hadn't even started to send the orders, when a trio of ship killers emerged from the asteroid field. The three Mark II GOD satellites activated their thrusters inside the cover of the asteroids, and let inertia position them. With the use of their passive EMS/STL system, they locked in their designated targets without sending any active lock warning. They adjusted the strength of their muzzle's magnetic field to correct the beams trajectory, and fired. Three long orange lances pierced the dark vacuum of space, and struck their unaware targets with so much strength that there was nothing to contain the damage.

One struck a Sharlin amid ship piercing the frontal armor and completely bypassing its internals to reach the huge gravimetric reactor, where its uncontained singularity decompressed in a massive explosion. It shared the same fate as the previous Tinashi. The second Sharlin was struck at the ventral area below the central weapon, destroying the root of the main neutron beam cannon, and continuing towards the dorsal fin where it ended its path of destruction on the main feed of the antimatter cannon. The third beam struck the Minbari Flagship while the ship was making its turn to starboard, and impacted at the bow but coming from the aft on its port side. The beam went right through from port to starboard just when the main neutron beam capacitor was charging. The explosion burst the Sharlin open at the bow, and wreaked havoc in all frontal systems.

The holographic projection was off line. Sineval was on the floor. Kalain rushed to help him. "Report! What hit us?" he said while standing up.

"The entire bow systems are in the red! We have lost primary sensors! Activating secondaries!" replied a warrior from one of the consoles.

The holographic projection reactivated giving Sineval a view of the battlefield. The majority of the Fleet was still facing the missiles, but some units were already breaking formation to engage the new arrivals. Some fighters were keeping formation in wait for orders, while others were already heading for the human Starfuries. The human fighters were already swarming space with missiles, while from the vortex started pouring out 173 Olympus class corvettes.

The small non jump capable human corvettes were equipped with racks of missiles which they started firing against the Minbari units. Some had simple high explosive warheads, but several were equipped with fusion ones. While the missiles carried by the corvettes were far smaller than those carried by the Sagittarius, Hyperions, and Novas, they were still bigger than those carried by the fighters, and in consequence carried a stronger punch, with the obvious exception of those equipped with high explosives. The small Earth Force vessels also started firing their plasma cannons and rail guns, and space started filling with hundreds of blue pulses making their way into the Minbari formation.

Some Minbari units were firing off vector of the approaching missiles and into three bigger asteroids. "What are they shooting at?" asked Sineval. "and in Valeria's name, order our ships to make to starboard and fire back. Release our fighters!"

"We were struck by weapons fire from around those asteroids, Alyt, but we are detecting nothing."

"Have some units keep an eye on that area, but have them engage the human ships and fighters, but give priority to incoming missiles."

On the three asteroids the Mark II GOD satellites, had already returned to the cover of the asteroids via their thrusters, and had angled themselves to release their missile volleys while they waited for the 30 seconds necessary to recharge their capacitors. One after another, the 20 missiles tubes on each satellite started releasing the 200 missiles contained in its magazines. The three satellites released 600 hundred of them that went to maximum trust the moment they left their tubes, and the big cigar shaped weapons started racing to join their previously released brothers into causing mayhem in the Minbari ranks.

**EAS Akagi ...**

The jump points had just closed, and the Avengers stood still in hyperspace after launching their attack. The ships had no offensive weapons, only interceptors so they were not risked in the engagement, but they were occupying a piece of hyperspace that was soon to become cluttered.

"Come about! All ships move away from the beacon! Flank speed!" ordered Admiral von Koester.

The ships engines came to life, and the Avenger class carriers started accelerating away. Human vessels were slow, but it wasn't because of lack of propulsion technology but from physiological concerns. The Earth Alliance ships normally worked with an acceleration of 1 G to mimic Earth gravity as human bodies were accustomed to it, and even though the technology and different engine designs allowed for much higher accelerations, the top speed of the majority of Earth Force vessels even in emergencies didn't exceed 4 Gs as the bodies couldn't handle prolonged exposure to such forces. The Novas had the biggest and most advanced engine block and allowed for even greater speeds, but the excess power was used to keep those 4 Gs in gravity wells so that ships were less hampered in those conditions. But this was no emergency, it was way beyond that, and even though the Avengers were old ships their engines were still up to the job.

Nearly 11 Gs crushed the crew into their seats. The forces were so high that the risk of people blacking out was real. The computers had been configured to manage the repositioning on their own in case the helm officers lost consciousness, but none of them did, and in just ten seconds they were already moving at more than one kilometer per second and accelerating. The ships had launched their attack on the border of the main fleet deployment zone, and were already moving safely away.

**EAS Philyra …**

Admiral Boyarskaya was counting seconds to order the jump, but beyond the asteroid field thousands of fighters with close to two hundred Olympus class corvettes had filled space with more than 36,000 missiles. They were very close to the Minbari units as they had jumped just a little more than 300 kilometers away. Very few Minbari ships were firing into the newly launched missiles, because they had literally been caught with their pants down, but that wasn't to last. It took some precious seconds for the bluish units to react, but they finally turned to starboard, and the real disparity in technology was felt.

Thousands of fusion beam cannons adjusted their aim, and fired. The range being so short, the beams so fast, and their sensors so precise that the hit ratios reached almost 100 percent. Swarms of missiles were being destroyed every second, and while a few moments ago it seemed that the Minbari were done, now the missiles were being stopped in their track, and the 300 km that separated them from their targets seemed infinite.

The corvettes, after firing their missiles, were now facing their targets in groups to concentrate their fire. They were still alive, only because the Minbari were concentrating on the real treat: the missiles.

"Ma'am, we won't have any missiles and ships when we join the battle if we linger too much. They are being brought down even faster than we expected." said the EFNI operative.

Admiral Boyarskaya knew that too, and wasted no time. "All ships! Jump! Now!"

The order was sent. All none jump capable ships were already grouped and formed with two jump capable ones. One of them for each group opened a vortex, and the Earth Force ships made the transition to hyperspace barely missing the fleeing Avengers.

"Admiral, we need to jump point blank. If we deploy at the same range of our other units, we'll be unable to hit them, and they'll wipe out the entire fleet." said the EFNI operative while the ships were moving through the vortex.

"I know, Lieutenant Commander. I know. This is going to get rough. Once in hyperspace turn the fleet around, deploy mines, and make the transition, as soon as we jump to normal space head at maximum speed towards the asteroid field. We'll just deploy and run, and we'll fire normal weapons until we reach the cover of the field." ordered the Admiral.

"Yes, Admiral."

"As soon as we jump, we fire everything we've got. Don't wait for targeting solutions. We'll feed targeting data to the missiles once they are on their way."

"Yes, Admiral."

"Coordinate the jump on the same side of the main attack, that way we won't be facing idle weapons. But bring the ships above and below the main missile and Starfury approach."

"Done, Admiral. Orders away."

The 10th Fleet with the added units of the 9th and 11th Fleets arrived into hyperspace. The ships turned to face the asteroid field location in normal space, they deployed mines, and the charged jump-capable units opened a vortex again. It was the fastest normal space to hyperspace to normal space fleet transition in recorded human history. Less than 30 seconds had passed since the first units arrived to normal space, than a second set of vortexes opened almost on top of the Minbari Fleet.

The first ships out were the 560 Artemis class frigates. The Minbari had already started redeploying their guns to the closest target, and were giving a breathing space for the first and second missile volleys to gain on speed. The first Artemis that came out of the vortex were pierced by fusion and neutron beam cannons before they even got a chance to fire back. But while the first ones to transition paid the price, they gave the units coming behind the chance to open and fire their alpha strikes.

A Sharlin was struck by the combined weapons fire of half a dozen human frigates. One after the other, the high speed rail gun penetrators pierced the Minbari unit head on, with plasma bolts making their way inside the ship, and adding to the onslaught that destroyed the vessel. The human ships on the other side paid the price by losing the entire formation by precise attacks from the Tinashi escorts.

Behind the Artemis class Frigates, the Olympus class corvettes of the second wave were clearing the vortex, and were already ripple firing their smaller anti capital ship missiles, but many of the units still were unable to launch as they were destroyed by neutron or fusion beams. The slashing attacks cutting through a corvette with ease. A unit broke in half while its missiles kept launching from the broken halves oblivious to the fate their mothership had suffered.

Then came the Oracles followed closely by the Sagittarius. These last vessels carried the greatest punch, and that was precisely the reason they came in last. The other units gave them a breathing chance to fire their ship killers.

The human missile cruisers carried 56 missiles in four racks of 14 missiles each: two on each side. The contrails already were seen as four missiles at a time were leaving their launch tubes in a very fast release.

**Trigati Sharlin class war cruiser …**

"Alyt!" barked Kalain

"I see them!" snapped Sineval. "Fire all weapons."

"We are not holding back. All weapons are committed. We must disengage, or we'll lose the entire fleet."

"Ahhhhh!" screamed Sineval in fury. The lower and top ships of the fleet formation were already being overwhelmed by the massive human release. While the explosions were still more numerous on the human side, many ships had already been lost, and human missiles were approaching on all sides and very fast. "Accelerate! All ships to maximum speed, now! Head for the the area with the least amount of missiles!"

"We should jump away and return when the missiles pass." countered Kalain, but neither order was to be sent.

The humans had coordinated their two attacks with the recharge rate of the Mark II GODS, but due to the fact that Admiral Boyarskaya had been forced to jump earlier, the capacitor charge for the satellites were just reaching capacity, and their thrusters were already moving the weapons out of the cover of their huge asteroids but from a different vector to confuse the Minbari gunners.

The already damaged Trigati was rocked hard. The bright orange beam struck the already damaged front but didn't pierce the ship as the momentum of the vessel made the beam to travel all the way aft, but while it didn't pierce from side to side, it did with one side wreaking havoc to the ship's internals.

Sineval, Kalain and the entire crew just saw bright light before everything was over.

Another two Sharlins were destroyed this way, but from the port side of the Minbari fleet several weapons that were not committed in engaging the missiles emanating from the asteroid field fired in quick succession destroying the three human ship killer satellites, but the damage was done. The Minbari fleet had been beheaded, and the loss of coordination meant that most vessels would have to face the human missile onslaught.

Individual Minbari units re-tasked their priorities. One Tinashi concentrated fire on the big missiles, but was overwhelmed by several dozen smaller missiles from the second Olympus' volley. The ship was completely destroyed. A Sharlin seeing the huge number of missiles approaching, and determining that they'll be unable to intercept them before they were hit, decided to go for the human ships to at least find some retribution. Its heavy beams struck two Olympus and an Oracle before being immolated by several fusion missile impact.

This was being repeated all along the top and bottom formations of the Minbari fleet.

The second and closer fleet deployment from Admiral Boyarskaya was receiving heavy damage, but was also overwhelming Minbari ships in numbers. But the first fleet deployment with its corresponding missile volleys and Starfuries were closing in fast, and the Earth Force fighters were reaching the far smaller Nial formations sent to intercept them at a very fast speed.

From the Minbari side, the Nials had passed through the approaching anti-ship missiles, bringing many of them down, but had already set their eyes on the extremely numerous human fighter approach. The first human Starfuries were disintegrated by the long range weapons fire of the Nials. The humans responded a few seconds later by a full anti-fighter time on target missile release when the Minbari fighters entered range. The massive number of missiles launched by the thousands of starfuries momentarily slowed the Nial's computer system while they prioritized threats.

The 765 Minbari fighters were being engaged by more than 7 to 1 odds in relation to the human starfuries, but with eight missiles being launched in waves by the human fighters, the odds were close to 58 to 1 against the missiles. It was such a massive deployment from the human formation that even with their extreme acceleration, they would be unable to escape. They had missiles approaching very fast from every side but aft, and were also carrying the momentum of its fighters. Their own acceleration was also playing against them, as they had accumulated a lot of momentum towards the human fighters, and that made it impossible to outrun the approaching mass of missiles.

The humans knew the stakes, and they also knew that they probably weren't going to get another chance to use their weapons, so they released their anti-fighter missiles in waves with the intention of saturating the Minbari defenses. While the missiles were in some cases old, their seeker heads have been upgraded with the interferometric passive sensors from the EMS/STL system. Just a few would have been necessary against a similar number of, let's say, Dilgar Thoruns, but with the Minbari, no risk was taken. It was better to lose all missiles than lose all missiles and their fighters.

The Minbari wing commander gave the order, and they kept heading for the human fighters while performing heavy evasive action. But against such odds, not even their huge technological disparity could make a difference, and space was momentarily lit by hundreds of explosions. The Minbari fighter morale reached rock bottom. They had been able to destroy several hundred Starfuries from long range, but they had underestimated their opponent and were paying the consequences. Their formation was broken, and while they kept firing against the human starfuries, the amount of human fighters that had entered range made quick work of the few hundred Nials that remained with very precise and numerous plasma pulse weapon hits, and the fast human approach was already making their way into the Minbari Fleet's heart.

**EAS Philyra …**

Admiral Boyarskaya was looking at the holographic display flattened by strong G forces into her seat. All the ships had their engines running at unhealthy levels for their crews, but it was a necessity. They had already launched their missiles, and their remaining weapons were not up to the task in engaging the Minbari units, so the plan was to make a release and head for cover of the asteroid field. But while they were moving fast, they were like standing still for the speed and precision of the Minbari weapons, and while the Minbari units were mostly focusing in bringing down the fast approaching missiles, they were still assigning some weapons to engage ships, and were causing terrible loses on her fleet.

The Sagittarius were making a full run for the asteroids, while the Oracles, Olympus and Artemis made the same behind the missile cruisers but kept firing their weapons, and were still able to cause some damage to the hundreds of Minbari units heavily engaged by missiles.

The formation of bluish ships was alight by nuclear explosions. Blue pulse plasma weapons and the faint contrails of rail gun rounds made their way into the Minbari formations from the top, center and bottom to sum up to the onslaught. But from that grinding, thousands of green beams were lashing out with fury into the human missiles and some into their warships. One of those beams was the main antimatter cannon of a Minbari Sharlin. The thick green line pierced the distance to the retreating human ships and struck a Sagittarius with a slashing attack. The entire aft section of the ship exploded away with the loss of containment of its reactors, and a fraction of a second later, several neutron beams including the primary from the same war cruiser struck what remained of the ship leaving nothing recognizable.

The EAS Philyra suffered the same fate as many ships before her. Admiral Boyarskaya and her crew were lost in a blink of an eye before registering what fate awaited them. A few seconds later that same Sharlin war cruiser was destroyed when several fighters launched anti-capital-ship missiles struck the vessel all along it hull. The ship cracked open by the first detonations and was completely destroyed seconds later by more arriving missiles.

The first missiles from the first fleet jump were arriving into the main Minbari formations, and the damage being done was out of proportions. The defensive fire was huge, but the approaching missiles were more than it could handle.

**EAS Akagi …**

The Akagi and the rest of the carriers were already outside the system's heliosphere but still in hyperspace. They were waiting for their jump engines to recharge before returning, and were receiving telemetry via their tactical links. The amount of ships lost on both sides had considerably reduced the amount of jamming, but communications at those distances were getting difficult.

Admiral von Koester sighed. "That was Elizaveta's ship?" he turned to Kofoed in question already knowing the answer.

"Yes, Admiral. That was the 10th Fleet Flagship. We lost the Philyra." answered Kofoed.

"Signal the Fleet. I'm assuming command. Keep all vessels on retreat into the asteroid field." the Admiral received a nod from Kofoed, and added. "Do you think the Olympus we deployed first will make it?" he said referring to the Olympus deployed by the carriers that were on a direct course towards the Minbari center force just behind the missiles and fighters.

"It all depends on our missiles and fighters, but we should have made the jump closer." answered Kofoed.

"Nothing to do now. We'll just have to wait." finished the Admiral.

**Vindira Sharlin class war cruiser …**

After the loss of the Trigati, the Vindira had assumed command of the Minbari fleet, and was already directing combat from its holographic Command and Control center.

Ships exploded on the Minbari fleet's top and bottom flanks. But some units from the central formation were already being lost by the arriving fighter, and Olympus launched missiles. The situation for the Minbari was getting desperate.

"This is a disaster." said Alyt Vrasnall, the commanding officer of the Vindira. "How did we allow them to ambush us this way?" he added mostly to himself, but his second in command heard, but only stared at him with a slightly opened mouth.

"We need to salvage the situation however we can." He turned to his second in command and ordered with a strong voice. "Order all ships to enter hyperspace, we'll wait for their missiles to fizzle out, then we'll return to take them down at long range."

"Yes, Alyt." the second in command replied while filtering the order fleet wide.

Ship after ship continued to explode in fiery explosions, but soon one after the other the more than two hundred Minbari vessels remaining started entering hyperspace. A Tinashi was the first to leave, several missiles passing right where it was a few seconds before. The transition was swift, but upon arrival the crew of the frigate came upon another human surprise. They had jumped inside a field of fusion mines.

The small human objects had been launched by Boyarskaya's ships, and they had quickly deployed into a very big cube of thousands of the automated weapons. The small thrusters of the mines were constantly working to keep stationary and in link with the beacon. They were designed mostly to be dropped to cover escapes or for protection of fixed sites, but not to be deployed in a fixed position in hyperspace. They had to keep their attitude thrusters at maximum, and would most likely not last more than a couple of hours. For Earth it was just a way of covering every avenue of approach and retreat for the Minbari, so they just needed them to last for this battle, and only a couple of minutes had passed when they became the center of attention.

On the Vindira, Alyt Vrasnall was watching how the ships closer to the approaching missiles were escaping into hyperspace, while the rest remained firing their weapons to bring more missiles down before retreating with their brothers.

"Alyt!" said an anxious warrior operating the communications station. "The hyperspace units are calling for an abort! They have come upon a mine field!"

"What? Destroy them!" A knot formed in the belly of Vrasnall. He knew the consequences of thermonuclear explosions in hyperspace, and the consequences of the same in normal space. He was facing both. He balanced the two and made a decision. "Abort! All ships abort transition! NOW! Give the order NOW!" he barked in an emotional breakdown. He was no longer calculating. He was just trying to save his ships. "Maximum speed! Get us out of here! Order all ships to open a path through the weakest part of the approaching missiles! Forget about the rest just fire into a single spot, and order all ships to escape through the breach."

There had been warriors mocking the human chances of fighting them with such a great disparity in technology, but after this, everything was different. He was afraid. For the first time since he finished his training, he was really afraid. Not of death, but of loss. They had been taught they were the best, the strongest, the most advanced, and here he stood. Out-thought by an inferior race, out-fought by inferior machines, out-maneuvered by slower vessels. All his sense of invincibility disappeared in an instant.

But what he was mostly afraid of, was that no matter what strategy they sought, what tactic they employed, the humans had thought of it before them, and had been ready.

**EAS Akagi …**

"Wait …, wait …, wait just a little longer." said von Koester.

The mines were being fired upon and destroyed by the incoming Minbari ships.

"We are losing them fast, Admiral." stated Kofoed.

The Admiral sighed. "Just let the missiles close a little more so that they can't enter hyperspace after we detonate the mines. Just a little a longer."

"We won't have mines to detonate if we tarry, Admiral."

"Damn! It'll have to do. Activate them. Now!" ordered von Koester.

The signal was sent, and again the mines detonated in a similar fashion as the missiles before them. From the outside to the inside concentrating the blast at the center. Ships were literally torn apart and washed away by the force of the explosions. The few vortexes that remained open were completely destabilized, and the few unlucky ships that were still inside were destroyed when their vortexes collapsed upon themselves.

Nearly 70 Minbari ships were lost in an instant. No survivors. Only wreckage floating away.

**Vindira Sharlin class war cruiser …**

The Minbari ships were in disarray. They were no longer in a wall formation. All ships were accelerating towards a single spot in the incoming missile barrage. They couldn't escape towards the asteroid field, or they would have been forced to slow down to maneuver, and that would have likely made them slower than the missiles with the obvious result. The only option was moving into open space beyond the jump gate, and that meant going through the missiles. That's exactly what they did, and exactly what the humans wanted.

Every ship fired forward into a single spot, but the speed that the human missiles had accumulated had already positioned them inside their formations from almost every side but aft, and casualties were mounting at an alarming rate.

After the loss of their ships in hyperspace, only a little more than 160 vessels remained. The Vindira was among them in the center of the formation.

"Another Sharlin has been destroyed. One more!..., two more Tinashis! Alyt! We are losing ships very fast." said a warrior from the sensor station.

"Keep the fleet moving forward and firing! We are almost through." replied Vrasnall, but that was nothing more than an understatement. More than a thousand missiles remained in front of them, and the Minbari fleet was dwindling down very fast by the overwhelming number of missiles hitting them on their sides.

Retreating into hyperspace was no longer an option. They would have to wait at least a few seconds for the shock-waves produced by the mines to recede, and by that time it would be over, so they kept on course. More ships were lost, and even a few stragglers were unable to move fast enough to avoid the swarms of fighters approaching. The human Starfuries were no longer in pursuit, but moving towards the asteroids to find cover as their weapons were not powerful enough against capital ships, but three Tinashis were overwhelmed by thousands upon thousands of small plasma bolts as the human X shaped furies made their pass close by.

But finally, and with the sheer volume of fire that the Minbari were able to throw in their frontal vectors, the last missile in front of them was destroyed, and their acceleration started pushing them away from the pursuing missiles. Those coming from the asteroid field had gathered a lot of speed and were close to their tails, while the rest of the missiles had already turned towards them, but their momentum kept them heading towards the asteroid field. Their missile engines struggled to move them the opposite way, and by the time they would gained enough speed the Minbari would already be out of range.

In the end, only 15 Minbari ships had made it through the swarm of missiles and into open space. They had turned around shutting down their gravitic drives allowing their momentum to move them farther away, while their weapons started to slowly destroy, the still thousands of missiles that were making their approach. It took a couple of minutes, but the last human missile was destroyed from very long range.

**EAS Akagi …**

"OK. We are in trouble. Make the transition behind the moon to retrieve our fighter, but do it fast, I don't want the Minbari to decide to enter hyperspace at this precise moment." ordered the Admiral.

"Yes, Admiral. Orders sent." replied Kofoed.

The carriers activated their engines, and started their approach at high speed. It took some time, but thankfully the Minbari remained in normal space making a slow and careful approach toward the moon and its asteroid field. That allowed the human carriers to open a vortex behind VCB-37-IIIG, and rejoin the vessels and fighters already assembling there.

"Order all fighters back. Don't waste time refueling them, just arm them as quickly as possible. They are our only capable weapons now. Let's not get caught with our pants down." order the Admiral to Kofoed who started to work immediately sending the orders.

A few seconds later... "It's done, Admiral. All remaining fighters have acknowledged, and are returning to their corresponding carriers."

"Remaining fighters? That sounded bad. Give me a full Fleet status report. All three fleets."

"Yes, Admiral." Kofoed started working and then reciting the information as he received it. "We lost 632 ships. The Artemis got hit hard. 433 of them had been destroyed. 164 remain. We lost 174 Olympus, with 146 remaining. 33 Sagittarius including the 10th Fleet Flag ship lost. 126 remaining. 29 Oracles lost with 60 remaining. We have a total of 554 ships operational including the 58 Avengers. Sagittarius and Olympus had emptied their magazines, which makes the Sagittarius combat ineffective. We have the Artemis, Olympus and Oracles combat capable with plasma weapons and sufficient ammunition for the Artemis and Olympus Rail Guns. We lost 2,239 starfuries, leaving 3,329 operational. We have sufficient anti-ship missiles to rearm them with four missiles each at least twice." Kofoed looked up to the Admiral after finishing, waiting for a reply.

"And the Minbari?" asked the Admiral.

This took more time, as that information had to be taken from sensor contact analysis. But after a couple of minutes he said. "Sensors detected a total of 51 Dreadnoughts, 408 Destroyers, and 765 fighters. The sensors deployed at the asteroid field are now detecting the slow approach of 1 Dreadnought, and 14 Destroyers. We can infer prior to battle footage confirmation that we destroyed a total of 444 ships and all fighters."

The Admiral was deep in thought, but finally sighed. "Prepare all ships including the Sagittarius for immediate combat jump. I want all vessels in formation ready to make a double transition."

"Their remaining ships are very well spaced out, Admiral. We'll require many precise jumps on different locations to overwhelm them using only ships. Shouldn't we wait for our fighters?" asked a concerned Kofoed.

"We'll only fight them with our Starfuries, but they still have to rearm. I want our ships ready for battle if the Minbari decide to make a move before we are able to. In any case, keep the fleet behind the moon. That will force them to go through the asteroid field first. Let's hope the beating they took has shaken their resolve. Let's hope they keep their slow approach, because those few vessels can wipe us out from long range, and there'll be nothing we'll be able to do about it other than escape."

"And let's hope they don't decide to make a combat jump just where we are, or through the polar regions. They could jump us from all over, and at long ranges." added Kofoed.

"Yes, and if they do so, we jump away and deploy mines in hyperspace while we retreat. Let's hope they don't. I want all of their remaining vessels destroyed. We have orders to retrieve Minbari wreckage, especially from their dreadnoughts, and I also want some time to check through our wreckage to see if there are some survivors."

"Yes, Admiral."

Minutes passed, and the Minbari were already close to the gate with their remaining ships spread out thousands of kilometers from each other.

Kofoed was attentive to the rearming status of the carriers' Starfury wings, when he spoke. "All fighters are in the green, Admiral, and all jump capacitors are fully charged. We are ready to attack."

"Send the signal. We attack now. Only Carriers. The rest will remain here with their jump capacitors at full. If we are unable to destroy them with fighters, we'll launch an attack on what remains of the Minbari fleet with our ships."

"Orders sent, Admiral."

The Avenger class carriers were already in formation. With perfect coordination, they made the transition into hyperspace without the Minbari being aware of it, as the moon covered their jump emissions. Side doors opened. Fusion missile equipped Starfuries launched. Avenger class carriers reformed in groups to spread their fighters evenly on every Minbari ships, and they then opened their vortex.

**Vindira Sharlin class war cruiser …**

The holographic Command and Control Center projected space all around it. No Minbari ship was in visual range as Vrasnall had deployed them far and wide to avoid another concentrated attack. The range also gave the Minbari cover from every other unit, as their weapons and sensors were more than able to engage any human deployment.

In Vrasnall's mind there was only a tingling sensation that he should get his forces out of there and return to the relative safety of their new supply depot, as they had hyperspace probes to detect any human approach. But as a Wind Sword, he just had revenge in his guts. Nearly a quarter of his clan had just perished to the humans, and that made him underestimate an opponent that had just showed him that technology and firepower wasn't everything in war.

But he didn't need too much time to learn from his mistake, as 58 jump vortex opened around his ships. Almost 4 per one of his vessels, and from each one came nearly 60 Starfuries. Some vortexes opened wide, but the majority opened very close as the humans not only wanted to destroy them, but also wanted to do so before they were able to escape to hyperspace, or their carriers would be completely overwhelmed. Again the humans made a perfect tactical choice, and in the end each one of Vrasnall's ships received a volley of nearly a thousand anti-ship missiles.

The humans had made their combat jumps from different vectors, so there was no where to escape, and the fighters were so close that escaping to hyperspace was also not an option. Soon, one after the other his ships were struck by waves and waves of fusion-tipped missiles. Some ships stopped firing their fusion beams and tried to use their gravitic fields to protect them against the attack, but against such number of fusion tipped missiles it was useless. The human missile swarms that had become legend during the Dilgar war, and that had crippled the Dilgar war machine, were revisiting the Minbari with even far greater numbers, and the last Minbari ships, or what remained of them, kept glowing and glowing with the massive thermal exchange from more than 12,000 missiles.

**EAS Akagi …**

"That was..." Kofoed paused to find the correct word. "excessive to say the least."

"I'm not taking any chances with them, and we have missiles to spare, but not ships. We have used not even 5 percent of the ship-based missiles, and even slightly less in fighter-based ones, and we just took out more than 450 Minbari ships." replied von Koester.

"Still a lot, Sir. Still a lot."

"Economics, Agnar. Economics. All the missiles we launched in this engagement would cost the equivalent of more less 30 Nova dreadnoughts. It's a lot, but how many Nova dreadnoughts worth of resources did our missiles just charge the Minbari? How many times of what we expended on them did the Minbari lose? Ten? Fifteen times?"

"I understand, Admiral. But it's still excessive. That shows the huge disparity between our forces." replied Agnar, and then smiled with pride. "But we were victorious."

"Pyrrhic," said the Admiral sighing. "but yes, we had victory." the Admiral didn't even smile, as Earth Force losses had still been very high, so he just continued with his orders. "Order our fighters to head for the debris field. Tell them to grapple every piece of ship there is. We'll have our recovery teams decide which pieces to give priority. They'll surely try to make at least a full ship from all the wreckage."

"Yes, Admiral."

"And have every Earth Alliance ship scanned for life signs."

"I'll make that a priority, Admiral."

"Yes, do that, and make them work fast. There are still Minbari ships in the Vega cluster, and a single one can wreak havoc if they find our fleet out of cover. Assign a Group in fast response duty. If sensors pick a single Minbari ship jumping in, they are ordered to make a fast dual transition to take it out."

"Yes, Admiral."

During the next couple of hours, the Earth Alliance units worked frantically in recovering crew, and cataloging and prioritizing Minbari wreckage for salvage. Few crew members of the ships struck by Minbari weapons survived, as almost every attack proved obliterating, and if one were to try and find the good side out of this, then it was that there were very few ships damaged, and almost all the remaining human vessels were fully operational.

Minbari ships, on the other hand, were heavily damaged and totally out of battle, but still some remained sufficiently sound to have crew men on board. Those ships had been moved inside the asteroid field under cover of the remaining Mark I GODS. But as no Minbari ships approached the system, it gave enough time for the Earth Alliance to try and rescue them. Breaching pods opened a way for marines to move inside in areas were no presence was detected, but as soon as the two sides got in contact, the lack of translators made it impossible for the Earth Alliance to suggest a rescue. Not that the Minbari warriors would have accepted otherwise.

In the end, it mostly ended in heavy boarding action with few surrenders, and none from the warrior caste.

The human ships started entering hyperspace towing wreckage, accompanied by many fighters doing the same, as there weren't many ships to do the entire job. The retreating human vessels were not heading for any colony as they couldn't risk that the towed wreckage had some type of beacon system undetectable by EA sensors, but they still released a constant trail of fusion mines to cover their retreat.

Approaching the retreating human fleets was the EAS Victory, an Avenger class carrier which was head of a detachment of ships that had been replaced on the 8th Fleet by newer vessels and had been en-route to reinforce the 9th Fleet before the battle started. It was the only other Avenger class carrier left, and the only of its class that didn't participate in the battle. The detachment was completed by 7 Hyperion class cruisers.

While the remaining ships went to leave their wreckage on a secret location, and then to rearm and refuel to continue the battle. The EAS Victory detachment was the first of many to be assembled that were heading to continued the fight in the halfway-invaded Vega cluster.

The first major fleet to fleet engagement of the war was over, and while it would be very difficult to ambush the Minbari in a similar way in the future, they had at least bought more time for the human war industry to flex its muscles. They had also shown the Minbari that while they were not the Shadows they so terribly feared, they were a new fear that was becoming a shadow in their minds.

* * *

**Author's notes:**

Special thanks to Susan Hilton and Durabys for making this story readable, and to Durabys for helping in plot elements and technology.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Six**

**Earth Alliance – Sol star system**

**Earth - Geneva**

**Earth Force - Headquarters**

**October 18, 2245**

The meeting between the Joint Chiefs, Admirals and Generals had been going on for hours. They had been discussing the general strategy to be used against the Minbari. The Battle at VCB-37 had demonstrated that even though the Minbari were extremely more advanced, if the proper tactics were employed, they could be beaten. It also showed that the EMS/STL (Electromagnetic Spectrum / Search, Track, and Lock) system along the particle canons were particularly effective against the two known Minbari units. But it was also clear that creating another ambush scenario for the Minbari to fall in would be practically impossible to achieve, at least when a considerable number of units were involved. It was very unlikely that they would allow the Earth Alliance to achieve tactical superiority again.

The talk centered around the incapability of the current ship designs to engage the Minbari at ranges exceeding a few hundred kilometers when the two sides engaged with equal numbers, at least in Fleet actions. So it was left clear that any future fleet engagements where it couldn't be guaranteed that Earth Force ships fought at close range, the only units to be involved would have to be the Nova III.

The Hyperions had completed their sensor's upgrades, and the Novas were about to, but the program to convert Nova II's into III's had not yet started as the shipyards had been used for the previous sensor modification program on the Hyperions and Novas. The actual state of upgrades was such that it was needed to find a way to slow the Minbari advance even further. The last battle had certainly achieved that objective, but even more time was needed. Small scale engagements against their reconnaissance ships were deemed necessary. When fighting against single units, Earth Force could force a fight with superior numbers. They could even create less complicated ambushes to employ hit and run tactics. But it was the proposal from the head of EFNI, Admiral Roger Donovan, that was currently being analyzed.

"We have used special forces since the nineteen hundreds, I don't know what is so difficult to understand about my proposal. I just want to apply that in ship level operations. I want vessels to be specifically assigned to Special Operations Command to do the same in space. We need to send ships into Minbari space not only to reconnoiter, but to hit their supply lines, beacons, and to force them to use assets and resources to hunt our spec-forces. If we are able to do so, it may strain the Minbari logistical train to allow our fleets back home to overwhelm what forces they deploy here. Not to mention that it's imperative that we gain sufficient intel on their war capabilities: Shipyards, supplies, colonies, defenses. If we do that, we'll be able to move our forces with fleet strength to attack one of their colonies in a hit and run operation. The fear of losing a colony will force them to re-deploy assets that could certainly be deployed in our space." stated Donovan.

Admiral Ferguson sighed. "We do understand your proposal, Roger. We did that to the Dilgar. But there are several concerns with the Minbari that have to be taken into account before we even consider creating a dedicated Naval Special Forces Fleet under EFNI (Earth Force Naval Intelligence) command:

"First, the unexplored space between the Earth Alliance and Minbari is even bigger than that between Altair and Omelos. We'll need to deploy a redundant and none-interdictable array of beacons to be able to transit to their space. Second, the range of our older units would be barely enough to reach Minbari space, and will require a strong logistical effort from our part to keep up. Third, those units would be unable to fight the Minbari in anything other than asymmetrical warfare. If they are found, they would certainly be destroyed, and I'm not willing to send people on a mission unless they have good odds in accomplishing it, otherwise it would only be a waste of life and resources. Fourth, we don't have enough people trained for this kind of operation to be able to send a big enough force to accomplish what you are proposing, and we'll require at least a year to train them. Otherwise we'll be forced to send ships with the crews they actually have, and while I'm confident in their abilities, it would be better to have people specifically trained for this."

"There are ways we can accomplish all of that with little effort." stated Donovan.

"I'm all ears, Roger."

"As you all know, the Nova IV is less than a year away from deployment. The main upgrade for that unit is a hybrid particle-ion cannon to replace the dual plasma turrets of all of our Novas. We could install them to every single one of our jump capable units. That will allow us to fight a one on one engagement with the Minbari, even with an Oracle..."

One of the Admirals interrupted him. "The Oracles and the other older units don't have the reactor strength to operate those weapons. They are only second in power to our main particle cannons. They are even stronger than the plasma mortars..."

"I'm aware of that, but while they are too powerful to operate continuously with the reactor strength those units have, we can at least have the weapons capacitors charged up to at least fire once. If we use the Oracle which is our weakest unit for comparison, we could mount it with sufficient weapons that if they all strike a target at the same time, the target would be destroyed. The upgrades would be relatively inexpensive, and if that allows every single of our units to stand a chance against the Minbari, then I think its worth it, and that would solve Donald's concern about our units being only able to fight asymmetrically." replied Donovan.

Donald Ferguson half raised his hand, "That still means we'll be able to start operations in Minbari space in almost a year if we take into account the time those weapons will become available and to upgrade those units with the new systems. What about my other concerns?"

"Not necessarily. We can start immediately to deploy beacons from the New London Beacon Cluster and skimming Centauri space to avoid a direct link to our space from that vector, and at the same time upgrade the turret mounts of our units and build those extra mounts needed so that when that hybrid particle-ion cannon is ready, we'll only have to mount them. We may be forced to operate without those weapons for just a few months, and we could make those initial missions relatively safe. Maybe just intel gathering, or a few hit and run attacks with missiles or fighters."

"About your other concerns, The Oracles, Sagittarius, and Avengers have at least a shuttle grade hangar, leaving only the Hyperion to require a small hangar upgrade to be able to mount a shuttle. If we deploy fuel harvester shuttles to every ship, we could move independently from our logistical train as they could harvest fuel from gas giants. We'll only need food supplies and spare parts, and if we stack those ships high with them, we could operate for years behind enemy lines. The refueling operations would be a slow process, but will allow us to avoid sending transports to Minbari space considerably reducing the chances of Minbari interdiction."

"About crew special training, I'm afraid that's something we'll have to cope with, but with the time it'll take to upgrade ships and deploy beacons, we should have the crew ready for deployment." finished Donovan.

General Kiew Wong spoke for the first time "If I may speak?"

"Of course, General." replied Donovan.

The short of stature but wise General of Chinese descent, who was the current Joint Chief of the Army addressed the assembly "The Dilgar War changed our concept of ground warfare. We used to have huge armies to protect Earth and its colonies. None can survive without orbital superiority as they can be destroyed by precision orbital strikes. We changed our doctrine by creating space capable fighter garrisons instead of troop garrisons. The current size of the Army is almost 20 percent in manpower of what it was after the Dilgar war, but it is far more powerful due to the addition of the Starfury in its core elements. We have kept a dedicated ground combat capability to allow us the possibility of invading a planet in case we find ourselves in the position we had during the Dilgar War, but while we still have dedicated armor and mechanized units, their numbers have been considerably reduced."

"That has been repeated with our special forces, and we have struggled to keep those units in operations. The smaller specialized spec-forces have been easy to keep on payroll, but in the case of the Rangers, the justification for keeping them fielded in such strong numbers is only due to their name. But support in quickly fading, and I'm afraid that we'll be losing strength in such a prestigious unit. The Navy has been given a stronger role after the Dilgar War, and even though I don't like the consequences to the Army, I support that decision. But I would like all of you to consider using the Rangers for this task."

"The Rangers?" asked Admiral Ferguson.

"Yes, the Rangers." reaffirmed General Wong. "They are highly trained in spec-force operations, and as you know every member of that unit is hand-picked from other Army units. The majority of those units belong to fighter garrisons, so again the majority of Ranger personnel are highly skilled pilots, and with lots of knowledge about starship operations. We may still have to keep some bridge and specialized engineering crew, but the rest of the positions could be fully filled by the Rangers."

"These new and evolved Rangers could handle every special operations assignment thrown to them. From deploying intelligence operatives on civilian freighters, psychological operations, space interdiction and boarding actions, long range reconnaissance, combat search and rescue, infiltration, and the list could go on and on. They have the training infrastructure so that we don't have to start from scratch, and that would require little modifications to add starship operation training. If we want people trained in special operations then the Rangers are the best option, and would allow us to justify their presence with our new doctrine. We can merge EFNI's smaller spec-forces in to it, and the increased highly skilled manpower will also allow EFNI the increased freedom of operation they are seeking." finished Wong.

"I actually find that option highly appealing. The Rangers have always been at the forefront of special operations. This will give them the chance to be the primary force for the protection of the Earth Alliance, and would make EFNI the independent force I'm seeking it to be. We'll just need the ships." He turned to Donald. "Admiral Ferguson, what do you think?" asked Roger Donovan the EFNI Admiral.

Ferguson shrugged and frowned at the same time while saying. "It could be."

"We need this, Admiral, and we need those ships." added Donovan.

Ferguson sighed. "The war has just started, and the technological gap is huge. We'll need every ship we have available if we want to stop them..."

"We'll give you more time, Donald. We'll keep the Minbari busy hunting us on their own space for our industry to help us make a difference." added Donovan.

"How many ships?" asked Ferguson, sighing again.

"Three percent of the Fleet, counting losses. That way we won't be a strain for fleet operations."

"Explain that."

"If we have 10,000 ships, then 300. If our fleet receives losses and has 5,000 ships left, then 150. We'll always keep the EFNI fleet to three percent of the active Fleets."

"OK. But as your missions will mostly be based on stealth, you'll get the oldest vessels. We'll keep our strongest units in the Fleets."

"Could we get some of the newer Novas for some heavy hitting requirements?" asked Donovan.

"No. If we need to hit a hard target, that will be a Fleet operation. But you'll get your three percent, and if losses mount beyond what we can replace with the Hyperions then you'll get Novas, but not before."

"But..."

"No buts, Roger. You have your three percent. Take it or leave it."

Roger nodded. "I'll take it, Admiral."

Admiral Ferguson then turned to General Wong. "Make the arrangements to transfer Ranger operational control to EFNI. Any asset that is not required for their new mission, have it reassigned to other Army units."

"I'll do that immediately. Thank you, Admiral. It's good to know that the Rangers will still be leading the way." replied Wong.

"About that." said Ferguson while turning to Donovan. "I have no problem with the Rangers' creed, but their motto will no longer apply. Find one that suits them. They'll be evolving, so should their motto."

"It's a strong moral boost, Donald. That motto has been with the unit for centuries. We should keep it." stated General Wong.

"I'm not against their current motto, Kiew, but the moment they make the transition from ground warfare to space and ground is the moment that they became a new unit. Their motto must reflect their new mission. I'm sure Roger will find one that suits them well, Now to other matters..."

**Earth Alliance – Sol star system**

**Earth - Geneva**

**EFNI – Headquarters**

**Command and Control**

**October 18, 2245**

**a few hours later...**

Hundreds of individual stations, distributed in a semicircular way from the entrance were monitoring the thousands of EFNI operatives and operations. Many of those operations were ongoing, and several were in a dormant state in a way that they were not showing interesting stuff. There were several secondary bigger screens on the wall at the end of the semicircle where the officer in command could highlight certain operations, but there was a huge main screen in the middle of that wall, and a big and powerful 3D emitter right in front of the commanding officer's station and before the semicircle deployed stations.

Seated at the center was Commodore Thomas Jankowski. He was close to forty, black-brown hair, blue eyes, and very tall. During the Dilgar war he was a member of a SOG (Special Operations Group) unit that was partly operated by EFNI. As Captain Jankowski, he lost most of his crew when after several months of successful operations, the Dilgar became fed up and assigned a stronger force to hunt down his search and destroy unit. When his underpowered detachment, consisting of just two Hyperion and four Olympus ambushed a Dilgar supply convoy from hyperspace, they found, to their shock, five Dilgar pentacans waiting for them, each lead by a Mishakur class dreadnought.

The commanding officer of the EA detachment chose to fight it out in complete trust in the demonstrated superiority of EA ships over Dilgar ones. But if not for the quick thinking of Captain Jankowski who immediately, and after the first salvos, ordered the activation of his ship's tachyon beacon to attract near allied forces in a counter order from the detachment's CO, and if not for the very near presence of more ships form the same SOG unit in hyperspace, the entire detachment would have been annihilated. In the end his ship was destroyed, and few crew members were rescued from the wreckage.

After a two month trial for insubordination, he was found surprisingly not guilty. The analysis of the battle and the idiocy of his CO helped a lot with his exoneration. He left the Navy as a ship Captain, and for the last 13 years worked as an analyst for EFNI where he was promoted to Commodore. On the eve of the Minbari crisis, he was instrumental on determining Minbari ship capabilities and tactics through the use of simulators.

In front of him, the 3D emitter was projecting the holographic image of VCB-37IIIG. The fleet had retreated the day before, but two Minbari scouts in the form of Tinashi frigates had arrived several hours later to reconnoiter the area. For almost a day they had stood still far away from the gate, as if they were in fear of approaching. The huge amount of debris detected had probably shaken the commanding officer into approaching. Only two shuttles had been skimming the asteroid field probably searching for signs of an ambush.

Inside the asteroid field the remnants of the Minbari Fleet was neatly gathered under the watchful eyes of the Mark I GODS left from the last battle. The satellites had only been able to launch their missiles, but their short ranged plasma weapons had meant that they were unable to participate further into the battle. But before the Earth Alliance fleets left, they gathered the remaining Minbari wreckage in the middle of those satellites, which were at the same time covered wisely with the asteroids to avoid detection.

"Where's the Victory detachment?" asked Commodore Jankowski to one computer station operative."

"It's under electronic silence. It was approaching the beacon, and launching passive probes before we lost contact. They should be inside the system's boundary by now." answered the operative, keeping his eyes on the monitor in front of him.

"Are we detecting any uncommon emissions from the Minbari?"

"No, Sir. Both ships are operating their sensors at what we believe is their maximum power, but apart from that, the two shuttles they deployed are moving deeper into the asteroid field, and if they keep their current search patterns will likely detect our GODS in a few hours."

"OK. Keep me informed."

"Yes, Sir."

At that time the door to the Command and Control Center opened, and Admiral Roger Donovan came through approaching Commodore Jankowski.

"Thomas."

Thomas stood to attention and saluted the Admiral respectfully. "Admiral."

"At ease. Where is Daryl?"

"Rear Admiral Cellini is due to relieve me in less than an hour, Admiral."

"Good. Then I have a job for you."

"Eh! Yes, Admiral."

"The Rangers are getting assigned to EFNI, and I need a new motto for them that reflects the evolved status of the unit. We are getting a fleet of ships, and they'll become the main operators. That fleet will be assigned specially for special operations, so the motto must go accordingly. I don't have much time, but I want to get this done as soon as possible. I have to go with Dr. Shouri at research and development, so I'll like you to start working with the motto."

"A motto? Sorry, Admiral. But I don't think I'm qualified for that." stated Thomas who was secretly cursing his luck. Less than an hour and the job would have been Cellini's

"Don't worry, Thomas. I just want you to start searching for ideas regarding it. I'll join you at your quarters as soon as I'm finished with the Dr."

"At my quarters, Sir?"

"Yes. You need to be inspired, so it's better for you to be in a place you can relax. But if you want me to find you elsewhere, tell me."

"No, Sir, my quarters are fine."

"Good, as soon as Daryl arrives, please start working with that."

"Yes, Admiral."

"Before I go. What's new?" asked Donovan.

"The Minbari have two Destroyers scouting VCB-37-IIIG. The Victory detachment is positioning for a possible intercept. Fleet command is managing the operation. We have also detected jumps on two other systems in the Vega cluster at beacons 49 and 42. Admiral von Koester is preparing detachments of capable ships to start interdicting their penetration into the cluster."

"Good. Anything on the other borders?"

"We are picking up an increase in com chatter on the Signet beacon cluster from the Koulani border. The transmissions are emanating directly from Koula, and there are responses from ships operating close to our border. But the number of units have not increased. They are either preparing for something, or just intrigued by our beacon operation."

"What about the Ch'Lonas?"

"Ross 128 is reporting Ch'Lon quiet. No com traffic increase."

"And the other borders?"

"The same, Admiral."

"Good. Thanks Thomas. I'll see you in a few hours." finished Donovan.

Thomas stood to attention and saluted, and then Donovan left.

**Earth Alliance – Sol star system**

**Earth - Earthforce Research and Development Division**

**Undisclosed location.**

**October 18, 2245**

**half an hour later...**

Many years had passed since Dr. Masaru Shouri had become head of Earthforce Research and Development Division, and the years of stress were clearly showing on him. His hair was definitely whiter than before, and his face was full of wrinkles, but they were mostly laugh wrinkles. He was a man full of joy, and was always able to make people smile around him. He never faced a problem with desperation, but with a peaceful and cheerful determination. He was seated in a comfortable looking desk chair. His legs were swiveling the chair from side to side in a circular motion, while both his arms rested on the desk. He was browsing his datapad through the many engineering and status reports he had to keep track of everyday, when a beeping sound announced a call.

The doctor turned in his chair to face the video feed, and looked at a Gold Channel priority message display. He quickly ran the authorization code and the screen went live with the face of Admiral Roger Donovan.

"Masaru."

"Roger. Gold Channels? Is this necessary?" asked Dr. Shouri, a little taken aback by the security measures.

"I'm afraid so. I know you are busy, so I'll make this fast."

"No problem. Take your time."

"Thanks." said Donovan gratefully. "EFNI is being assigned ships for special operations behind enemy lines."

"Aha..."

"We are getting the oldest." stated Roger with a little disdain in his voice.

"Well, in a way it's understandable..." started Masaru.

Roger interrupted him. "But that doesn't reduce the risk my people are getting into. I can't... We can't depend on stealth, Masaru. I need those ships able to defend themselves, and we need them capable of operations at those distances without re-supply."

"Tough request."

"I know. But I have an idea that could work for us."

"Let's hear it."

"How's the new particle-ion hybrid coming?"

"Ah! I know where you are going. You want to mount those weapons on every ship. Don't you?"

"Yes. I know they don't have the strength of the main particle cannons, but they have the range and are strong enough in numbers to really hurt the Minbari."

"I agree with you in that, but there is also a reason for only the Nova, Nova II and III to be considered for upgrade to replace the dual plasma cannons, and we have a special design program to probably mount a couple on the Hyperions, and that is a big IF. The amount of energy required to operate that cannon is well above 10 Peta Watts. Not even the entire power output of a Hyperion can operate one continuously..."

"I know Masaru. I've seen the specs, but the Novas are still underpowered if you consider that we could operate a little more than four guns continuously, but the upgrade programs planned for the Nova, Nova II and III include replacing ALL guns."

"Yes. It will give our dreadnoughts great damage redundancy and a hell of an Alpha strike..."

"Bingo! You now got my point. I want every ship equipped with those weapons to give the Minbari a hell of an alpha strike to deal with."

"Roger, are you taking into consideration the amount of energy required to charge a single of those weapons? We are talking about 14.4 Peta Watts for a continuous operation, or 28.8 Peta Joules for a full capacitor charge. An Oracle will take more than 9 minutes to do so, and that's just for a single weapon. One will only damage a Minbari destroyer."

"That's not new to us. An Oracle requires a far greater amount of time to recharge their jump capacitors. I know they'll be combat ineffective in a fleet engagement. But if they are able to keep their weapon capacitors charged, then they'll be able to fire an alpha strike powerful enough to destroy a Minbari unit. If our calculations are correct we would need between 4 to 8 guns to do so. Now the question is. Can we mount them?"

Masaru chuckled. "You always get what you want, don't you?"

"As a boy, I used to cry and scream to get what I wanted. Do I have to do the same now?" the Admiral added with a serious face.

Masaru burst out laughing, and then added. "I'll see what I can do." he sighed. "I don't think we'll be able to do much with the Olympus..."

"Forget about the Olympus and Artemis. Focus only on jump capable vessels."

"OK, then. With the Oracles and Sagittarius I can't promise much, but I'll see if we can at least mount four. For the Avengers I don't see much of a problem, other than the mentioned recharge times, For the Hyperion ..."

"Ah! Yes the Hyperion. About them. Admiral Ferguson is unwilling to part with some Novas. So we'll not get their hard hitting power as long as there are other ships available. I need firepower, and only the Hyperion has enough growth potential to give me that. I need any upgrade to consider an increase in missiles and fighters, as well as mounting the greatest number of the new guns possible. I don't care if you move fire arc and replace all of the older turrets. I want them to be ship killers, and a great multipurpose platform, one I can depend for every operation."

"I'll see to it. About the other requirement. You want ships able to operate behind enemy lines without re-supply? I can get my people to work in a solution, but I believe you already have one. Are you willing to share your thoughts on the matter?" Masaru asked, half-joking.

Roger chuckled. "Well, for the Hyperions, we could replace their smaller tanks for bigger ones, and then add some extra more. It's got enough space to do so. About the others, including the Hyperions, we'll need to deploy fuel harvesting shuttles. The Oracles and Sagittarius are able to carry one each, while the Avengers could carry at least a couple in the frontal hangar, but another modification required for the Hyperions would be the installation of a Hangar able to mount them. That way we should be able to refuel from gas giants."

"What about spares and food?"

"We have enough space for food so that's not a big concern, but spares, we'll have to fill every available space with them, and hope they are enough to last. Can it be done?"

"Building conduits and mounts, and mounting cannons are not problems, but the modifications required for the Hyperion will be a little more difficult. I'll get a team assigned immediately."

"Great!"

"You do understand that we'll be able to do so until the new cannons for the Nova IV become available, right?"

"Yes, but I would like to have all the engineering work done by the time the cannons are ready, so we'll only be required to mount them. But if the Hyperions are able to be fielded with increased fighter and missiles capacity before the guns are available, will give us a greater chance against the Minbari."

"Good, then. As soon as the upgrade designs are ready, I'll let you know. You'll have to work with fleet logistics to handle the upgrades."

"Thanks, Masaru. I'll wait for your designs."

"Unofficially I'll start immediately. But you know the bureaucracy. Just send me all of this in writing, and with Ferguson's authorization so that I can start working on it officially."

"I'll do that immediately. Thanks again, Masaru."

"Don't mention it."

**Earth Alliance – Sol star system**

**Earth - Geneva**

**EFNI – Headquarters**

**Commodore Jankowski's quarters**

**October 18, 2245**

**a few hours later...**

Thomas had been breaking his mind trying to come up with a new motto. He was lying in bed with a paper notepad. He had his back resting in a very comfortable set of pillows, and was currently drawing all kind of rubbish on his current sheet of paper, his mind completely blank. The floor was full of paper balls in the direction of a waste basket. The basket was empty.

He picked his datapad and read again what was displayed on it.

**_Ranger Creed:_**

_**R**ecognizing that I volunteered as a Ranger, fully knowing the hazards of my chosen profession, I will always endeavor to uphold the prestige, honor, and high esprit de corps of the Rangers._

_**A**cknowledging the fact that a Ranger is a more elite soldier who arrives at the cutting edge of battle by land, sea, air, or space. I accept the fact that as a Ranger, the Alliance expects me to move further, faster, and fight harder than any other soldier. _ __

_**N**ever shall I fail my comrades. I will always keep myself mentally alert, physically strong, and morally straight and I will shoulder more than my share of the task whatever it may be, one hundred percent and then some. _

_**G**allantly will I show the Alliance that I am a specially selected and well trained soldier. My courtesy to superior officers, neatness of dress, and care of equipment shall set the example for others to follow. _

_**E**nergetically will I meet the enemies of the Alliance. I shall defeat them on the field of battle for I am better trained and will fight with all my might. Surrender is not a Ranger word. I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy and under no circumstances will I ever embarrass the Alliance. _ __

_**R**eadily will I display the intestinal fortitude required to fight on to the Ranger objective and complete the mission, though I be the lone survivor._

**_Ranger Motto:_**

_Sua sponte! Rangers lead the way!_

He sighed, still thinking. '_At least I don't have to change the creed.'_ and then placed the datapad on one side. He tore the last sheet of paper from his notepad, made a ball of it, and threw it towards the waste basket. The paper hit the wall, bounced back and scratched the border of the basket to land happily besides all his other brothers: on the floor.

"Damn! I'm getting rusty."

He sighed again, Rested his head on the pillows, closed his eyes, and for the next couple of minutes he just relaxed.

When his stress had receded, he opened his eyes, stood up and approached the computer terminal saying. "Display all reference material relating to Army Rangers."

"Processing..." replied the computer.

Endless lines of information appeared with no clear order. He tried everything: From Rangers motto; how to write mottos. The list was endless. But on one of his motto writing queries, he saw that while a motto needed to be awe inspiring, and in consequence needed a lot of imagination to create. They were mostly created through the use of well known sources like: books, movies, series, games, and even real life experience, so he said. "Display Ranger in Science Fiction. Include only books."

The list was very long, again.

"Cross reference results that have the same subject in both books and movies."

The list was still long but far shorter.

"Order list by success."

"Please specify success." replied the computer.

"The ones that sold more books and had the greatest income in movies."

On top appeared: Lord of the Rings.

"Seek entries for Rangers in Lord of the Rings."

"Two matches." replied the computer.

"Display them."

The computer screen showed:

_-Rangers of the North._

_-Rangers of Ithilien. _

"Give me a small summary of both."

_-The Rangers of the North, also known as Watchers or simply Rangers, were the last remnant of the Dúnedain who had once populated the Northern-kingdom of Arnor. _

_-The Rangers of Ithilien or Rangers of the South much like their distant cousins the Rangers of the North, were a military group whose purpose was to defend Ithilien, the gate to Minas Tirith, and to prevent Haradrim and Orcs from entering Mordor. _

"Are there any mottos on them?"

"Negative." answered the computer

"Show me the movies."

"Select version" asked the computer.

_-1978_

_-2001_

_-2067_

_-2144_

_-2211_

"Reproduce the 2211 version."

"Unable to comply. Requires holographic display and telemetry body suit." replied the computer.

"What about the 2144 version."

"Requires holographic display."

"and the 2067 version."

"Requires flat 3D display."

"Does the 2001 version run on this pathetic computer com display?"

"Designation incorrect. The model of this display is QM-2239."

Thomas gritted his teeth, clenching his fist in frustration. "Reproduce 2001 version."

"Select movie."

_-The Fellowship of the Ring_

_-The Two Towers_

_-The Return of the King_

"Start with the first one." answered Tomas returning to his bed, and comfortably resting on his pillows.

The movie started. It was definitely old as it didn't have any special features as newer movies. It was just plain flat. But... it looked nice.

As the movie advanced, he started writing in his paper notepad. After several minutes a paper ball made its intercontinental flight to the wall, and an aborted landing near the international waste terminal.

The movie played forward for several minutes, and another paper ball made a hard landing.

"_Creiban from Dunland!"_ Shouted Legolas in the movie just when another paper ball made it to the floor, this time not even getting near the basket.

A few minutes later the Fellowship was returning from the failed attempt at weathering Caradhras, when he wrote in his notepad: '_I am a Ranger.' _"Good a first grader start." he said and then thought. _'How pathetic.'_

_Frodo stands up and looks at the writing on the gateway. _

_Frodo: "It's a riddle." _

_The water continues to ripple. The rest of the Fellowship watches. _

_Frodo: "Speak 'friend' and enter. What's the Elvish word for friend?" _

_The water shivers again. _

Thomas Jankowski tensed on his bed.

_Gandalf: "Mellon…" _

_The stone doors slowly swing open, rumbling deeply. The Fellowship enters Moria. _

Thomas knew what was coming, as he had seen the newer versions. But this movie was still a mystery to him, and the expectation had him tensed up. The entire scene of the Watcher attacking and the Fellowship defending unfolded, and once they were forced into Moria, he finally sighed in relief. He went back to his notepad and wrote: _"We walk in the dark places no others will enter." _

The paper now read:

_I am a Ranger_

_We walk in the dark places no others will enter._

The movie played forward.

_Boromir: "What is this new devilry?" _

_Gandalf does not respond for a moment. He closes his eyes, concentrating. The rumble is heard again. _

_Gandalf opens his eyes. _

_Gandalf: "A Balrog — a demon of the ancient world." _

_The thing growls, still hidden around a corner of the vast hall, throwing fiery light on the pillars. Legolas's eyes show fear. _

_Gandalf: "This foe is beyond any of you… Run!" _

…

_Gandalf: "Over the bridge! Fly!" _

_The Fellowship flees. Gandalf does not follow, but turns, looking into the wall of fire. _

_A great form of black shadow leaps through the flames, its eyes of white fire, great ash-black horns curling around a bull-like head. _

_It opens its maw, rippling heat pouring out with a rumble. Gandalf turns, running after the Fellowship. A great, black, cloven foot stomps down into the hall, bursting into flame. A narrow bridge of stone appears in the fiery light, and the Fellowship crosses the bridge. Gandalf turns to face the Balrog. _

_Gandalf: "You cannot pass!" _

_Frodo: "Gandalf!" _

_Gandalf: "I am the servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor…"_

_Gandalf: "The dark fire will not avail you! Flame of Udûn!" _

_The Balrog strikes down on Gandalf, who parries the blow with his blade, shattering the Balrog's sword. Glowing embers run off the circle of light around the wizard. The monster bellows at the wizard. Frodo gasps. Aragorn runs forward. _

…

_Gandalf: "You — shall not — pass!" _

Thomas quickly wrote as the scene unfolds: "_We stand on the bridge, and no one may pass._"

The paper now read:

_I am a Ranger_

_We walk in the dark places no others will enter._

_We stand on the bridge, and no one may pass._

The movie played forward.

_Boromir: "No, no!" _

_Frodo: "Gandalf!" _

_The wizard grasps the bridge, looking into Frodo's eyes. He stops struggling. _

Thomas knew all that Gandalf was doing, he was doing it for Frodo, so he wrote: _"We live for the One,"_

_Gandalf: "Fly, you fools!" _

_Gandalf lets go of the stone and falls into the chasm, spreading his arms, the light of the Balrog glimmering far below. _

_Frodo: "No!" _

Thomas continued writing: "w_e die for the One."_

The paper now read:

_I am a Ranger_

_We walk in the dark places no others will enter._

_We stand on the bridge, and no one may pass._

_We live for the One, _w_e die for the One._

"Pathetic. Couldn't the Admiral had asked a professional?" he said out loud while tearing the piece of paper from the block, and crumpling it into a ball. Without looking or thinking, he threw the paper ball in the general direction of the waste basket, and it made a perfect parabolic flight into it.

"Now! You go in. Now! You go in." he said in frustration throwing the paper notepad towards the other side of the room. The movie continued playing, but he was no longer watching. He had smashed his head on the pillows, and was looking angrily towards the ceiling with both fists clenched, when the door chimed.

He jumped to attention expecting the Admiral, and saying. "Enter."

He barely became aware of the sea of paper balls when the door opened. He had no option but to stand firmly and salute. "Admiral."

"Commodore." he saluted back looking at the paper balls. "I see you are redecorating," he said, while his eyes took a glance towards the waste basket. "or were you practicing your throwing abilities?" he approached the basket, and looked inside. "Hmm. No. You were just redecorating." he finished with a laugh.

"I... I was..." Thomas answered, and then continued with a lower voice. "off angle."

"I'd presume." replied Donovan still chuckling. "So? All of this." he said referring to the paper balls. "means you were not successful?"

"I'm afraid so, Admiral. I'm just not good at this. You should find a professional, an advertising or marketing expert. Someone who could..."

"No time, Commodore. I know it's important, but I'm not going to waste my time with this when we have the Minbari on our door step." Donovan replied while bending to pick up the piece of paper in the basket. "This one is either the one selected by the Gods to be the new motto," he said chuckling. "or it's the one who really deserved to be in the trash."

"Oh! Not that one, Admiral, please." pleaded Thomas in shame.

Donovan uncrushed the piece of paper and read. "_I am a Ranger_, that's obvious. _We walk in the dark places no others will enter. _Hmm, special forces daily routine. _We stand on the bridge, and no one may pass. _I like this line. It gives an air of invincibility. _We live for the One, _w_e die for the One._ The One? Who's the One?" Donovan asked.

"The Earth Alliance as a whole, Admiral, or any objective worthy of the attention of the Rangers." he answered shrugging on the last comment. "I'm sorry, but I was trying to get some inspiration by watching this movie, and when I saw Gandalf sacrificing himself for the Fellowship, for Frodo. It occurred to me that that is what the Rangers will be doing for the Alliance..."

Donovan turned towards the com screen. "Oh! The Lord of the Rings." He said with a smile. "I love it. You made all of these by watching that movie?"

"Only the last few, Admiral... including the one your are now holding."

"I like it. It's not bad. Tell me from which parts you got the inspiration for writing this."

Thomas made a short explanation about the parts of the movie from where he got each line, and the Admiral was fascinated.

"Entering the darkness of Moria." he nodded. "The bridge stand against the Balrog. That's one of my favorite parts. Now, it's got true meaning."

"Admiral?"

"Many admirals including some Chiefs of Staff, including Admiral Ferguson," he smiled "including myself, are Tolkien fanatics. They will love this, once I explain where you got it from."

"Admiral, please. It's a first grader work. I wouldn't ..."

Thomas tried unsuccessfully to change the Admiral's mind. But if there were any doubts anywhere in the universe about this new motto/creed ever becoming the new Ranger's will and bravery empowering mechanism, then one should only need to hear any member of the Minbari Anla'Shok whom had been reciting the same lines for a thousand years. Lines that unbeknown to them originated in the small quarters of Thomas Jankowski, and that was inspired by Tolkien's words.

"Nonsense. It's simple, to the point, and exemplifying the exact core activities the Rangers will perform. It's all a motto should be. It even has the length to replace the creed."

"I..."

"You should be proud, Thomas. Sometimes the simplest of things are the ones that work the best, and I believe this one to be that case."

Thomas sighed, and knew he wouldn't get anywhere, so he said. "Thank you, Admiral."

Donovan just nodded slightly. "I haven't gotten the chance to ask. How did the last battle go for you? I know everybody lost someone they knew."

"Not good, Admiral. I lost some friends, and a second cousin."

"A second cousin?"

"Yes, Captain Michael Jankowski."

"Hmm." replied the Admiral frowning. "I'm sure I've heard of him before..."

"The Omega incident at Markab..." stated Thomas with slight shame. "the one that forced us into early battle in that system, and that started our involvement in the Dilgar War."

"Oh! The Omega incident." replied Donovan awkwardly. "I'm sorry to hear that, Commodore. I lost track of him."

"He commanded the same Artemis Frigate. His ship was part of the second wave under Boyarskaya, and one of the first through. He never got a chance to fire."

"I'm sorry, Commodore."

"We were not close, Admiral. I feel the loss for my family, but we never had a good relationship. I know it doesn't sound good, but I actually feel more for the friends I lost than for him."

"It's understandable..."

**Tr'Ess'Na system – Minbari Federation**

**Valen'Tha Sharlin class war cruiser - Grey Council meeting**

**October 19, 2245**

Four jump points opened. Green beams slashed towards them destroying a few X shaped crafts. The area surrounding the ship burst to life with the glow of several hundred missile launches. Secondary fusion beams activated trying to bring down the small weapons when from the vortexes came four light gray vessels with blue markings that had not been seen before. Plasma pulses burst out from their heavy turrets. The Minbari ship responded with all forward weapons clawing one of the vessels, and destroying it after a second volley. The human ship was definitely stronger than the ones seen before. Plasma pulses from the remaining three struck the Tinashi and the image shook. Seconds later, the first of several hundred fighter launched missiles ended their trajectory, the image rippled in static before any fusion detonation could be seen, and then faded away.

Coplann cleared his voice before speaking. "That was the last of our reconnaissance party. We lost contact with those two Tinashis, and are obviously presumed destroyed. This last one took one of their vessels, while the one before did so with two. Their jump engines are not as precise as ours, but it's clear that they were perfectly able to detect our ships while plotting combat jumps to intercept them, even with our stealth systems on."

"How is that possible? All the reports indicated they were not advanced, at least not enough to pierce our stealth system. How are they doing so?" asked Satai Rathenn of the religious caste.

"You are correct. Human sensor emission analysis indicate their active sensors are neither powerful nor advanced enough to detect our ships with stealth systems active. Our guess is they are using passive sensors to do so. Those sensors are normally short ranged. How they are able to increase their sensitivity is still a mystery for us, but sensor linking is an option." answered Coplann.

"Sensor linking?" asked Rathenn.

"Passive systems work through emissions triangulation. To be able to precisely calculate degrees on an angle, you need the triangle sides to be sufficiently long for an angle to show with sufficient decimals. You either need a huge sensor to determine the location of ship grade targets at long ranges, or you need to use several sensors separated from each other, and linked them to do the same. Otherwise passive sensors are only good for detection but not for weapons tracking. I believe what Coplann is saying, is that the humans are able to precisely determine the location of our ship emissions by linking their passive sensors in that way." answered Satai Alnenn from the worker caste.

"Yes." replied Coplann. "It's a low tech solution, and doesn't have the precision of our active sensors, but it's still effective."

"That means our stealth systems are ineffective against them?" questioned Rathenn.

"Against single ships it's still effective, but more than one will nullify our stealth systems as they can link their sensors to increase the precision of the angle's calculation Alnenn just spoke about."

Delenn was expecting the worse. They had lost contact with their fleet, and Coplann was showing them the loss of just two reconnaissance units, and was talking about sensor capabilities instead of the main reason they were gathered there. She asked even though she could see the answer "The Fleet, Coplann. Where is the 1st Attack Fleet?"

Coplann sighed, and looked intently at Delenn before showing them another image. The field of vision switched to that of an asteroid field. In a small portion of it the scene looked like floating small grains of salt. The image zoomed to them, and the distinctive silhouettes of Minbari ships and parts could be discerned. The view switched again to that of the shuttles approaching the wreckage. The pieces were now clearly identified as Minbari.

The image got blurred as the shuttle initiated evasive maneuvers. The debris field was suddenly filled with blue plasma pulses. The shuttle was able to move away towards the Tinashis to barely glimpse the opening of two sets of jump vortexes in the precise location of the frigates, when one plasma pulse was seen racing past the top of the cockpit, and then another, until the image was lost. The council chambers went dark again.

"All of them?" asked Delenn in near panic. Memories of Duhkat telling her that they needed the humans to fight against the shadows presented to her with the ominous meaning that they were not only fighting with whom should be their allies, but with whom Duhkat considered essentially strong to face a first one level race. Her blood run cold before Coplann answered. If Duhkat though they were that strong, had she voted in a way that will sentence her race to death against an unbeatable enemy? Had she sentenced both races to death when the shadows came knocking on their doors and found two weakened races? Or had she sentence her own race to death if they actually defeated their only possible ally?

All members of the council lost all pretenses and remove their hoods looking intently at Coplann.

The warrior's face was serious in a similar fashion from one who faced a problem expecting a solution and seeing another. He sighed. "Before we lost our reconnaissance party, we were able to detect the equivalent to 43 percent of the mass of the 1st Attack Fleet."

"What does that mean, Coplann? Speak without riddles." asked a furious Rathenn.

"43 percent of the Attack Fleet is in that debris field, the rest in unaccounted for." answered Coplann.

"What do you mean by unaccounted for? Were they able to escape? Are they possibly chasing the human fleet?" asked a bewildered Rathenn.

Coplann lowered his head and shook it in disagreement. "43 percent of the mass, but parts of nearly 80 percent of our ships were detected. If we were following their fleet, the humans wouldn't have had the chance to gather our wreckage below the guns of defense satellites."

"Defense satellites?"

"Yes, the ones that destroyed our two shuttles near the debris field. The only logical explanation is that the humans were able to move our wreckage away."

"That is impossible." shouted Rathenn. "Only once had we lost so many ships to an enemy in a single battle, and that was against the Shadows! The ships we used then were not as advanced as the ones we have now. You are telling me that the humans are comparable to a First One?" there was silence. "Answer Coplann!" he shouted in disbelief.

Coplann was part of the Grey Council, and as such he had the same rank as Rathenn and shouldn't need to cope with his shouting. But the fact that an operation handled by the warriors met such a devastating defeat, made him shy away and swallow everything that came his way. He sighed in frustration and answered. "Before we lost contact, our fleet had detected a strong human presence hiding behind asteroids. We were systematically destroying their cover when the human vessels launched a huge missile volley. Those missiles were half through the asteroid field when there was a massive outburst of energy that momentarily disrupted our communications with them. Everything returned to normal, but seconds later we lost all contact again. We can only guess what happened."

"And what is that?" questioned Rathenn.

"The massive energy outburst could only have come from hyperspace as there were no explosions detected in normal space. What was it? And why? We don't know. But the loss of communications a few seconds later could only be attributed to heavy jamming in hyperspace, and that only leave us with and option: Ships. Lots of them. How many? We don't know, but the human debris found by our reconnaissance Tinashis before being destroyed are consistent with at least a full fleet in strength, with the technology they have we believe far more than just one fleet."

"But what does that mean?" asked Rathenn again.

"That we were ambushed." added Delenn with a face lost in thought.

"Ambushed?"

It was very hard for Coplann to accept that as a warrior, but he could not hide what had happened and answered while nodding. "We believed so."

"How?"

"They lured us to that system, and were expecting us. How they managed to destroy our fleet, and how they did so without any of our ships retreating is something we have been unable to decipher. We momentarily regained contact with our fleet during the battle. At that time only 15 units were accounted for, but jamming was very heavy and communications extremely garbled. We don't know what happened yet, but we will, and we'll make it certain that it doesn't happen again." answered Coplann.

The discussion continued for a few more minutes before a relaxed Rathenn asked again. "What do we do now?"

Coplann answered with strength. "We strike them down. We make them pay for what they did."

"Let me remind you Coplann that that is exactly what the fleet we lost was trying to do." stated Satai Dhaliri from the religious caste. "I would recommend the warriors to smarten up, because this is not a race you can play with. They are not advanced that is clear, but they have proven themselves to be dangerous. Extremely dangerous. No one was able to beat the Dilgar, and they did so almost single handedly. After we analyzed their ships capabilities after the first engagement, we grew complacent, and look what has happened."

"We never expected them to beat our stealth systems. We could not have anticipated this." replied Satai Morann of the warrior caste.

"You had already lost contact with the Tinashi sent ahead to explore. You could have planned accordingly!" added Dhaliri. "Now! Returning to Rathenn's question. What do we do now?"

Delenn was torn apart. She wanted vengeance for Duhkat, but she also knew he would have disapproved. Not only that. He wanted her race to ally with the humans. So she said. "What if our rage has blinded us. What if the humans are correct, and this was all a misunderstanding..."

"Are you backing down Delenn? Might I remind you that you gave the vote that broke the impasse. Remember?" asked Morann petulantly.

Delenn looked as if she had been slapped in the face. She blushed but still answered. "All I'm saying is that it all could have been a misunderstanding."

"Too late for that, Delenn. We gave the order and with that, we set in motion a war that can no longer be stopped. My clan lost more than a quarter of its members. We are no longer fighting just to avenge Duhkat. The Wind Swords now demand retribution, and we'll not stop until every human ship has been destroyed, their colonies razed to the ground, and their population moved and imprisoned on their homeworld." Morann spat out.

Delenn was speechless. She was sworn to secrecy about what Duhkat had revealed to her. But in her rage she had help set in motion a war that would gain its own momentum if she didn't reveal her knowledge. In the end, and after the anger and fury she saw in each member of the council, she decided to keep things a secret, but still show a glimpse of what Duhkat wanted, so she added. "The Wind Swords suffered that loss because they were very eager to join the ranks of the 1st Attack Fleet. They put themselves in that situation. Their losses were terrible but were done so in battle."

Morann was about to refute, but Delenn stopped him by continuing with her talk in a forceful manner. "If this council was correct in its deliberation! and the humans are indeed shadow thralls! I will not condemn our course of action!" her voice lowered its tone. "But our decision was made in a moment of rage and sorrow. We must find proof. Irrefutable proof that they are what we believe them to be. Otherwise we may even be destroying our chances against the Shadows."

"If we are actually fighting a race that has shown at least to the League to have moral fiber and integrity, we could actually be fighting the only race that could ally with us against the Shadows. It's not the first time they have created situations to force races to fight between each other. They did so a thousand years ago and they could be doing the same now to weaken us."

Morann burst out in rage. "Are you out of your mind? We were not infiltrated by the Shadows! There was no political meddling! The humans fired deliberately against the Valen'Tha, and now they are trying to make us look the aggressors in the eyes of every other civilization. That's their play. I have no doubts in my mind that they are in league with the Shadows, and after this last battle in which they used deception to win, the few doubts I could have, had completely vanished."

Satai Shakat of the warrior caste spoke for the first time in this meeting. "I voted against this war not because I wanted peace, but because the humans are a new race to us, and I wanted to learn more about them before attacking. I agree with you Delenn that irrefutable proof has to be found, but I also agree with Morann in that this war has to continue until the humans are defeated or until the proof we talked about is found. The war with the Shadows as prophesied by Valen is at our door step. We can't risk having a potentially strong enemy rallying every race against us under Shadow banner, and while it'll be better having them as allies, the risk and danger of having them as enemies outweigh the benefits of an alliance. If every one agrees, then find that proof, Delenn. But what we truly need to decide now, is how to proceed with the war."

Everybody bowed their heads in agreement, including a slightly reluctant Delenn. She hated the humans for what they did to Duhkat, but the sting of Duhkat's memories still hung ominously in her thoughts.

Morann didn't lose time, and said. "We need at least two full Fleets to crush the humans swiftly..."

Solnier of the worker caste interrupted him. "We don't have the logistics yet to manage the resource requirements of two fleets operating so far away. We can only manage one for the moment."

"Morann is right. We need two fleets." added Coplann.

"Solnier is right. We can only keep one supplied." refuted Alnenn.

Dhaliri proposed a compromised. "We could send two fleets. One could guard our frontal base or bases, and/or captured human colonies, while the other handles combat and reconnaissance operations. That way only one will be a burden for logistics, and we can have a second fleet immediately available if the first needs assistance, and could also act as reserves for the first one."

"That sounds good. But we'll still require some time to reactivate two full fleets from our reserves..." replied Rathenn before being interrupted.

"We need them now, even if that requires reassigning defense fleets for offensive operations." stated Shakat.

"I agree." joined Morann.

"As do I." added Coplann.

"That will leave only four fleets for the defense of our space. Do we want that? The humans have shown capable of destroying almost one full fleet, and they were very aggressive with the Dilgar. They could be preparing an attack of our space for what we know." asked Rathenn.

"I agree." added Solnier. "Our economy is not yet geared for war. Many shipyards have been built and are working on bringing reserve ships on-line. But we just have less than 30 Sharlins being build from standard year to year contracts. The losses we sustained in that battle are comparable to more less 15 years of peace time ship building. We just can't keep up. We have enough ships in the reserve to manage the humans, but we need time. If we are attacked by the humans while having two defense fleets out, and our losses are similar or higher to the ones we suffered last battle, our defensive capabilities will be compromised. If the Shadows are out there, they could gather their forces and we may be caught spread thin. We could lose several colonies."

That last statement sent ripples through the Council. The humans had proven that they could beat them, but the fear of being attacked by the Shadows in a moment of weakness was worrying to say the least.

"How much time do we need to deploy a full fleet from the Reserves?" asked Shakat.

"We are building new shipyards, but all the new ones are being used to maintain ships from the defense fleets. The shipyards that were doing so were tasked in bringing reserve ships on-line. We need nearly a full month to complete the shipyards required for maintenance operations. In that time we could bring back to operation a total of 185 vessels from the reserves. From then on our rate will increase as new shipyards will start being assigned for that purpose. I expect taking into account new yards that we could have 729 ships to form a fleet in 75 days and a second fleet 45 days later." answered Solnier.

"How many ships are left from the 1st Attack Fleet?" asked Rathenn.

"6 Sharlins, and 52 Tinashis, with several ships en-route including the Drala'Fi." answered Coplann. "Not enough ships to hold the line if the humans attack in force. We can't wait 75 days."

"I don't think the humans will be able or willing to mount an attack on our space as long as we have ships in their space." stated Shakat. "We could deploy the 6th Defense Fleet, and then replace it by ships from the reserves after forming the 2nd Attack Fleet. That way we could keep our front strong and secured, and in four months we should have replaced the 6th Defense Fleet from our reserves."

"I agree." said Coplann. "The first five defense fleets are composed of 729 Sharlins each. They are very powerful. The 6th Defense Fleet has only 70 Sharlins, the remaining 659 are Tinashis that are in the process of being replaced by newly built Sharlins. That Fleet's strength will not be heavily missed in defensive operations, and will fully replace our lost strength in the front."

"I agree to that option." added Morann.

"How many fleets can we form from the reserves, Solnier?" asked Rathenn.

"We still have 228 Sharlins and 3,850 Tinashis, so more-less five and a half." answered Solnier.

"Then I also agree."Stated Rathenn. "We need one more vote for majority."

It was unanimous.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

- The Rangers and their new motto from an EA perspective may sound strange, as we never saw this on the series as originating on an EA unit, but I wanted Valen to form the Anla'Shok from something tangible. I also want "The going into the past" thing to be managed by EFNI as part of a way of gaining intel on the Shadows and Vorlons. So in this story the Anla'Shok will originate from the EFNI Rangers. I have to accept that I'm not much of a fan of the Anla'Shok motto, but I decided to go with it to keep something to canon. I hope the way I made Thomas come up with it to be at least amusing.

- Special thanks for Zurvan for providing the wealth of information about B5 in pdf format. I'm not going to use the RPG sources as canon, but they do provide a huge amount of information not mentioned on the series and that I would have had to invent. I use the Minbari council members from those pdfs. I only changed Hedronn from the warrior cast for Morann to keep a little to canon, as Straczynski mentioned he was part of the council.

- As always, special thanks for my betas: Durabys and Susan Hilton for making this story possible.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's notes:**

- Thanks for Zurvan in helping find a name for the Shai Alyt and Alyt of the Drala'Fi.

- Special thanks for Susan Hilton for not only betaing this huge chapter, but for doing it very fast.

- Thanks for everyone who continues reading this story, even with the speed of my updates.

- I added a map on the facebook page for you to see where things are happening. I did that three times, and for some reason its not working properly. Last night, I checked it, and it wasn't there. Let's hope its just a bug from facebook that will soon be corrected. If you don't see it there. It's not my fault. (I'm just praying its a bug and not a hacker.) I know there a nicer maps out there, but I found that one to fit perfectly with Lord of Misrule's 'The Dilgar War' beacon lines, and since this is intended as a continuation of that story, I'll be using that map until I create my own.

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

**Hyperspace – Near Earth Alliance's border**

**New London Beacon Cluster – Heading towards Quadrant 15**

**EAS Pythia – Oracle class cruiser**

**November 20, 2245**

During the last month, EFNI had been assigned with a total of 139 jump capable ships. 60 Oracles, all of that type remaining, and 79 Sagittarius of 126 remaining. The EAS Pythia was one of the first ships assigned to the new Rangers. The vessel was still manned by most of its original crew since only a low percentage of Rangers were fully qualified for their new task. Their training was being done fast, but the mission could not wait, so the first detachment departed with Earth Force naval crews still operating the vessels.

In the case of the EAS Pythia, Captain Jeff Easum had been transferred to command one of the new Nova IIIs coming out of the production lines. His former XO, Commander Erin Cunning had been promoted to Captain and given command of the old Oracle class vessel. She had also asked for a permanent transfer into the EFNI Rangers.

Her ship was part of a detachment of eight vessels tasked with beaconing the route to Minbari space. One of her escorts was the EAS Didyma, the only ship left from the original Pythia detachment that saw the start of the Minbari War. The rest had been the none-jump capable Olympus and Artemis that had either been destroyed in the last battle or were still assigned to Earth Fleets in the Vega Cluster. The new six additions to the detachment were also of the Oracle class. This class of ships had not enough firepower to engage Mimbari vessels, but the detachment was not reinforced with Sagittarius as their mission did not require it.

The beaconing operation they were undertaking required a different vector of approach, as the direct line between the Vega cluster and the Minbari system where all of their communications originated from, had a strong Minbari presence. The risk of losing ships on approach to Minbari space was almost guaranteed. That line was in the process of being interdicted by Earth Force ships, but the new line to be created by EFNI was to be used as a means of entering Minbari space with the least amounts of casualties as possible, and to allow a big number of ships to reach and operate inside enemy controlled space with impunity.

The new route selected was through an area of space currently unexplored. It required ships to move from the other side of Earth Alliance space in relation to Minbari space. The closest Human colony on that area was New London. The detachment had to head towards Centauri space crossing through quadrant 15 were they would have to deploy several beacons to open a doorway through that area. They will then link their sensors to the Centauri beacon of Gorash, and then skim through the beacons of Cargan, Beta 2 and Batain, also in Centauri space. It was then that the detachment will be heading directly to the Minbari colony of Sh'Lekk'Tha; a designation acquired from Centauri sources.

The operation was politically risky. If the Minbari saw human ships approaching from a Centauri vector, it could either trigger a conflict between those two powers, or it could backfire and make the Centauri move against the Earth Alliance with the excuse that humanity tried to frame them by looking like to the Minbari that they were helping the EA. Risking Centauri intervention, even if it was done only to close their borders by blocking this new corridor was not an option for EFNI, so while they'd be skimming Centauri beacons, they would do the final approach from a vector that didn't conflict with Centauri space. They were also going to be increasing the width of that corridor by adding redundant beacons all along it, so that even if the Centauri moved forces to close their borders, the EA could still operated through an intermittent networks of beacons that were only going to be activated by the ships making the crossing.

Beacon redundancy was also considered, as the Minbari could detect a beacon and jump to destroy it, effectively stranding ships making the approach, or breaking the beacon line into their space. The solution was to install dozens of them and to operate them intermittently, making human ships rely on many of them than in just a few.

The Pythia detachment had already crossed inside quadrant 15. They were still in sensor range of the New London Beacon Cluster, but they had already deployed several beacons. Some were latched to stable gravitational Lagrange points inside several solar systems, while others were just simply dropped in interstellar space. Those last beacons were certainly not going to be able to function for triangulation purposes, because their drift would slowly make them ineffective in that regard, but they were still relatively fixed to the huge size of normal space to provide a safe passage through hyperspace, and that's what EFNI needed.

Accompanying the detachment were two tankers providing the fuel required to go all the way to the Minbari border and back. These Oracles were not equipped with fuel harvesting shuttles, and were not going to operate behind enemy lines, so the tankers were there to re-supply them for their trip home.

"Captain, we are about to lose beacon contact with the New London beacon cluster. Beacon intensity is at 3.22 percent of optimal." announced the navigational officer.

"Activate one of the newly deployed beacons. How much time until we are able to pick Gorash's beacon emissions?" asked Captain Cunning.

"If our course is correct, then in approximately four more days, Ma'am."

"Then activate two beacons, and fix our course to them. Let's not get lost out here. This mission is very important. There are several detachments that will be following us very soon, and which are heading for operations inside Minbari space, so let's give them a safe approach."

"Yes, Ma'am."

* * *

**Vega star system – Earth Alliance**

**Orion class space station "Vega" - ex-10th Fleet Headquarters**

**Geostationary orbit above Vega IIA outpost complex**

**Orbital Command and Control**

**November 24, 2245**

"That's another one, Vice Admiral." The sensor officer pointed out. "They are getting closer, Sir. I really can't say if they are at engagement range, but I believe the Hyach would be."

"Range?" asked Vice Admiral Roger Blight. He had been the commander of 10th Fleet's 39th Battle Group, but with the losses sustained during the last battle, and older ships being assigned to the EFNI Rangers, the 10th and 11th Fleets had ceased to exist. Surviving ships were either reassigned to the 9th Fleet under Admiral von Koester, or were now in EFNI control. He had found himself without a Battle Group to command. Admiral Ferguson had personally requested him to take command of the Vega colony's defenses as Admiral Boyarskaya loss placed him as the most experienced officer in the cluster after von Koester who was still in command of the 9th Fleet.

"2.43 Giga meters." replied the sensor officer calmly.

"Are our defense satellites linked with the outer sensors?"

"Yes, Vice Admiral. But the closest sensor is still more than 1 Giga meter away from the Minbari ship's position. We'll still have some emissions lag of almost 4 light seconds. But the target is moving on a fixed heading and speed."

"Then please tell them that they are not welcome, and use twice the satellites that the battle parameters specify for engagement. Let's not bet if they have the range to engage us. I don't want to lose a single sat to them. Let's keep our grid strong."

"Yes, Sir."

Space around the Orion class space station "Vega" had been heavily reinforced with mark II Global Orbital Defense Satellites, commonly referred as GODS II. A total of 72, half of the newly build ones since the beginning of the conflict, and which were supposed to be joining the defenses of Earth, had been transferred instead to Vega. The numbers deployed at Earth were close to 1,600 not counting the GODS I, so while the defense grid at the human homeworld was still being reinforced, half of the newly built satellites were now helping the Vega colony to stand a chance against a Minbari invasion.

The engagement range of more than 8 light seconds made it extremely difficult for the weapons to precisely calculate the engagement zone, but the hundreds of sensor satellites deployed beyond the orbits helped with target acquisition as the tachyon communications used to transmit that information effectively reduce the standard emissions lag of passive sensors. If one were to count the emission travel lag, then, the engagement range in this case would have required 16 seconds, but had been reduced to 11 thanks to the outer sensors.

The Minbari Tinashi scanning the orbits of Vega II for any possible human ambush was unaware of the pack of angry gorillas setting their sights on it from Vega IIA. Eight flashes of light barely reached the Tinashi from that moon, when they were closely followed by eight bright orange beams, each covering a possible heading vector. One struck the Tinashi piercing it from bow to stern on the port side. It missed the Quantum Gravimetric reactor, but the strength of the impact had been so strong that its crew had been literally bounced around.

It had taken the sensor satellites a little more than four seconds to confirm that the Minbari ship had not been destroyed, and then a little more than eight seconds for another set of eight beams to reach it again. Its crew had not even been given the chance of picking themselves from the floor, when this time, one of the bright orange beams pierced it again striking the reactor with the obvious consequence to that. The ship blew up in component parts.

For the next twelve days, the battle intensified in small engagements of guerrilla styled warfare.

The Minbari tried to keep scouting the second planet from even longer ranges. In one, the Earth Alliance used three missiles equipped with the EMS/STL (Electromagnetic Spectrum / Search, Track, and Lock) sensor upgrade. They reached a distance of 2 light seconds from the target, and the GODS II were again able to engage the Minbari ship at almost 3.1 Giga meters away.

A third attempt by the Minbari had been performed at 5.7 Giga meters. Vice Admiral Blight had dispatched several patrolling Starfuries to provide sensor readout at Tachyon speeds. But even with this benefit, the battle management system had requested a total of 41 satellites to engage the Minbari target at 19 light seconds away, and to do so in a slashing pattern to provide a greater area of coverage for each beam. The Vice Admiral used every one, and of the 72 beams, dozens struck with a less damaging slashing attack, but still with enough cumulative strength to destroy the third Tinashi.

From then on, the Minbari learned to avoid the extreme engagement range of the human colony's defense grid. After that, they used Nials to try and determine if this was indeed a human colony, or another attempt at an ambush, but no other Minbari ship was destroyed by the GODS II during those twelve days of guerrilla warfare.

The real battles that ensued were performed by the ships of the 9th and 8th Fleets. The last one was now freed by the 6th Fleet to allow its deployment in the Vega Cluster. With the older Novas having been upgraded with the EMS/STL sensor system, and with a stronger defense grid in the form of additional interceptors. Earth Force had decided that it was no longer necessary to escort those ships with Hyperions and had concentrated them in the 5th and 6th fleets. That forced the same for the Hyperions, and now the 8th Fleet was composed of 512 of them, while the 9th Fleet had 23 Hyperions, 59 Avengers, 47 Sagittarius, 164 Artemis, and 146 Olympus. With 439 ships it was no longer at full strength, but the two fleets at 951 ships made it a strong opposition for the Minbari with the tactics that were being employed.

**EAS Akagi – Avenger class carrier**

**Flagship 9th Fleet**

**November 24, 2245**

**A few seconds after the first Vega IIA defense grid engagement.**

"At what range?"

"More than 2.4 Giga meters away, Admiral." stated Lieutenant Commander Agnar Kofoed, the EFNI specialist.

"Damn! Vice Admiral Blight is looking for a promotion. I can't wait to get my hands into a Nova III. If we can engage them at those ranges, this war will get far easier for us and far more difficult for them." added Admiral Otto von Koester.

"Yes, sir. Many Nova IIs are already being upgraded to Nova III standards. We'll soon have enough ships equipped with long range engagement capability to really complicate matters for the Minbari." replied Agnar with a smirk.

"But in the meantime we'll have to do with these crappy designs." added Otto pessimistically. "Now... tell me... Where else do they have a presence?"

Agnar guided his speech with the use of the holographic display, showing the admiral the exact position of the Minbari units. "There are four more Minbari destroyers. Two are entering sensor satellite range. One at Vega I, and another at Vega III. The other two ships' sensor emissions are barely detected by the sensors installed at Vega IV and V."

"What about VI and VII?" asked the Admiral.

The Vega system had a total of seven planets which were designated with Roman numerals. The Earth Alliance had a colony on the first moon of the second planet, and a small research outpost at the seventh planet.

"No contacts, Sir." answered Kofoed.

"Hmm. I'm not sure if we should show our cards yet or wait a little longer."

"I would recommend we engage them now, before their numbers become too big to manage, but there is also the matter of the Minbari ships in hyperspace."

"Yes, they will know what we are up to either way." the Admiral added sighing, and then said. "Just give it a minute. Let's wait until we can determine the exact position of the other two vessels. Then we hit them. Run them by the numbers. I want at least two detachments per Minbari ship."

"Yes, Admiral. Shall I assign the 35th Battle Group to handle the four vessels?"

"What do we have on hyperspace?"

"All that remains of the 36th Battle Group: The entire 141st Group, and three detachments of the 142nd Group, one of them with 7 ships. Several detachments are acting as hunter killers interdicting the Minbari approach into the Vega cluster. They have already been able to destroy a Minbari transport in hyperspace. But three detachments of the 141st are providing Early Warning outside the heliosphere hyperspace boundary. They have several Starfuries supplementing recon drones into determining the position of the Minbari ships deployed in hyperspace."

"OK. Reassign every interdiction operation. Pull them back, and make them supplement the 141st on Early Warning and space denial. I need to know the precise moment the Minbari fleet makes their approach. Have the 35th Battle Group to handle the four vessels. But I don't care if the Victory's detachment showed that they were able to destroy two Minbari destroyers on VCB-37. I want at least two detachments per enemy vessel engaged. Make that very clear. Those detachments are not composed of Hyperions, and are heavily out-gunned by the Minbari. Exploit fighter attacks and have them use warships only if they need to block a retreat."

"What about the Minbari hyperspace emissions, Sir? The 141st already have the vectors of those emissions, but they have no yet detected a Minbari ship. If we jump now, their ships in normal space may be given the heads up and be ready to defend against us. They may even try to engage us in hyperspace."

"Have the 141st launch some missiles in the general direction of the Minbari emissions, and have them detonated at the same time our ships make the transition. Let's hope some thermonuclear explosions are enough to mask our vortex openings."

"Yes, sir."

A couple of minutes later, two sets of missiles exploded on the general direction of the two Minbari hyperspace emissions detected. At the same time, 64 ships made the transition into hyperspace, and coordinated their formations to prepare another jump for intercepting the Minbari.

The vortexes opened again to intercept the four Minbari ships.

The one in Vega I, was intercepted by two accurately opened vortexes in front of its approach. 192 Starfuries poured from it, and immediately paid the price of being in the Minbari's ship frontal area where almost every gun had a clear shot to fire. The approach on that vector was necessary as doing so from another position would have allowed the far faster Minbari ship to move away unscathed. In the end, while the losses in Starfuries were high, the fusion missiles launched from the remaining human fighters were enough to destroy the ship. The capital ships of those two detachments stayed in hyperspace waiting for their two available Sagittarius to make a dual transition to bring the fighters back, and then moved away of the heliosphere boundary to avoid detection.

A similar engagement occurred on Vega III, and the Minbari ship was destroyed.

On Vega V, two vortexes opened to pour out anti-capital-ship-missile equipped Starfuries. But in this case the Minbari ship turned away instead of firing into the human fighters, and another two sets of vortexes were necessary to bring down the Minbari vessel. 6 Olympus, 6 Artemis, and 2 Sagittarius made their attack run. As in the Battle of VCB-37, the Artemis paid the price of moving first. Two ships were destroyed just as they made their transition. The Minbari vessel split its firepower, and its green beams pierced them from bow to stern.

The two that followed suffered the same fate, but were able to at least fire an alpha strike that rocked the Tinashi when the dozens of rail gun penetrators clawed deep into its armor, and in some cases pierced it. The plasma rounds of the same alpha strike only scarred the surface, but helped point out the fact that they were not welcome.

Two more Artemis closely followed by the six Olympus made the transition, and the last vessels launched their missiles at once. The Minbari ship maneuvered to port to try to avoid the Olympus launched missiles, and those already launched by the Starfuries, but the range was too close, and the added strength of the heavy missiles launched by the just transitioning Sagittarius made it impossible for the Tinashi to survive. In the end, the Minbari vessel destroyed 4 Artemis and 1 Olympus before dying at the hands of hundreds of fusion missiles.

The situation on Vega IV on the other hand was almost a disaster. The two Avenger class carriers of the two detachments tasked in intercepting the Minbari ship opened their vortex and sent their Starfuries through. But the Minbari vessel already aware of the human attack on its far away companions, was better prepared to deal with the incursion. Instead of staying to face the human fighter onslaught, it opened a vortex at the same time as the Starfuries were making their transition.

The EA ships detected the vortex opening and ordered an immediate jump. The carrier EAS Kaga was able to move fast enough, and followed its Starfuries into normal space, but the EAS Courageous was not, and two neutron beams made quick work of it. The vessel was pierced and sliced several times, and its remains had little resemblance to the once proud capital ship.

But that was not all. The Minbari ship made a 360 turn that fighters other than Starfuries would have been envious of. The other two EA formations were centered around two jump capable Sagittarius. One had already opened a vortex, and its ships were making the transition with the exception of an Olympus that had lag a little behind while preparing to form for the original interception mission. The other Sagittarius was the target of the Minbari vessel's fury.

The Tinashi opened fire with all of its weapons, including its antimatter, neutron, and fusion cannons. The explosion of the human missile cruiser was huge, and it severely damaged the other 6 ships accompanying it. It was good that they were nowhere near a Foucault current, for the consequences would have been disastrous for every ship present.

The remaining none-jump-capable ships tried in their damaged state to engage the offending unit. The Minbari on the other hand knew quite well the capabilities of the human ships present, and had split its firepower against the Olympus to avoid a missile barrage. The three units of the class ceased to exist before being able to fire in response. The Artemis on the other hand had every gun not damaged on the Sagittarius' explosion firing against the Minbari vessel. But it was the Olympus from the other formation that ended the slaughter.

The Captain of that ship knew they had no chance, and that if he didn't act, the Minbari ship would be able to jump back to finish the ships that escaped to normal space. He fired all of its missiles. The Tinashi had received some damage from rail-gun rounds and was venting atmosphere, but had in turn made quick work of the remaining Artemis.

The only human ship firing back was the Olympus. Its missiles already underway left only its single rail-gun and its four plasma cannons to do some damage to the Minbari ship. The battle was chaotic to say the least. Plasma pulses veered of vector through the influence of hyperspace magnetic fields, while fusion beams from the Tinashi did the same, but the distances were so short that adjusting targeting sensors was an easy thing.

The Tinashi didn't waver and finished the Olympus before itself being immolated by several fusion missiles. The blast of the missiles and the quantum gravimetric reactor decompression vreated a huge wave of energy that disintegrated any remaining wreckage. The waves that followed were slightly felt by the vessels outside the heliosphere.

The Earth Alliance had been able to intercept the four Minbari ships, but it was now clear that they were already adapting to that strategy, as the cost of 1 Avenger, 1 Sagittarius, 7 Artemis, and 5 Olympus attested to.

The bridge of the Akagi was in silence. The captain of the carrier had unbuckled himself a few minutes earlier and floated toward the rear of his command chair to approach the Admiral's station. He had seated in one of the empty chairs to watch all the action.

"The 140th Group got hit pretty bad." stated the Captain of the Akagi.

"Yes, Sir. They are combat ineffective." added Kofoed.

"The hell they are combat ineffective!" replied von Koester angrily. "Tell the 35th Battle Group to manage its resources! I want its 140th Group's units operational again!"

"They lost too many ships, Sir. The 559th detachment is no more. The 557th lost three ships, the 558th two, and the 560th one." stated Kofoed sympathetically.

"I don't care, Agnar. They still have ships combat ready. Have the 35th Battle Group reassign them. If the 140th Group has enough ships to reform two detachments, then that's what they have. But I want every ship ready for combat."

"Yes, Sir. What about the ships that expended their missiles?"

"Reform the detachments concentrating empty ships in them, and have the reformed unit move to the deep space supply depots to re-arm. I want them ready as soon as possible. If we keep having these casualties, we'll need every available ship to slow the Minbari advances. That's our job. The 8th Fleet has another, and let's hope command sends reinforcements fast for them to join the 8th, or they are going to have a hell of a fight."

"Yes, Sir. I'm adding the order to the battle-net."

The Admiral was clearly worried. While he was using the weakest detachments for engaging the Minbari, as he was leaving the more capable ships to engage harder targets, the losses his units were sustaining were very high.

"I'm starting to second guess my decision of distributing the Hyperions on the detachments. They are far stronger combined." stated von Koester.

"There are only 23 on the 9th. We'll barely be able to form 3 detachments with those numbers, and all the none-jump-capable units we have on this fleet would be ineffective without the addition of their jump capabilities. I think your decision was correct, Admiral." replied Kofoed.

"I'm with the Lieutenant Commander in this." added the Captain. "We just don't have sufficient jump capable vessels on this fleet."

"I know. That was the reason I assigned them that way, but losing 14 ships to engage 4, when we made every effort in just using fighters, doesn't give too much support to that decision." replied the Admiral, while keeping his eyes in the holographic display. "We know the Minbari have replaced their losses in force. We have detected more jump vortex openings in their reformed stagging area at VCB-165 than the ships we faced on VCB-37, and we have had confirmation through tachyon com emission detection near that area that they have more than an EA fleet deployed in the Vega cluster." The Admiral turned to look at Kofoed. "You are sure they haven't jumped out?"

"There are constant vortex openings on that system, Sir, but not fleet scale. The time single vortexes remain open suggest individual ship transits. Between their transports ships and scouts, there are many coming and going, but unless our spy satellite and the several recon satellites are not working properly, their main fleet is still there." answered Kofoed.

"Their scouts arrived at Vega several hours ago. Last time, we were already engaging their main fleet. What are they planning? It's clear they are scouting the system. They are probably trying to determine if they are not going to suffer the same losses than the last battle. But they should at least be making their way here. They should be scouting in force."

"I don't know, Admiral." Kofoed answered shaking his head.

"Well, its fine with me. This plays to our advantage. How is our reinforcement situation?"

Kofoed accessed the computer to retrieve the information and answered. "The 5th has 369 upgraded Novas or Nova Charlies deployed on the Dakota cluster. Some of those ships are patrolling the New London, Canton, Myoto, and Berlin Clusters. The 143 Nova IIs of that fleet are in the process of being upgraded to Nova III standard, and are still on Earth's and Proxima's shipyards."

"The 424 upgraded Novas and 88 Hyperions of the 6th Fleet are all deployed on the Signet Cluster, with some of its ships patrolling the Jericho, Delphi, and Deneb clusters."

"The 7th Fleet with 512 Hyperions previously deployed in the position of the 5th Fleet is redeploying here. Some of its units are still in Dakota, but many are in transit. There are ships in the Sirius and Cooke clusters, but at least 20 percent of them have already arrived at Signet. They are refueling there before making their way here, and there are at least 3 detachments already en route. One will arrive in a day." answered Kofoed.

"Where is their Flagship?"

"Still in Dakota, sir."

"So, who's in command?"

"No one, sir. They are being assigned to the 8th Fleet for the moment, and will remain so until the redeployment is completed. The 7th Fleet's Admiral is still in the process of delivering command control to 5th Fleet Actual."

"No word on when we are getting some Nova IIIs at the front?"

"No, sir. But it's still too early. They say it takes two months of shipyard work to replace the plasma mortars and install the two particle cannons and the new sensors, and Command wants to bring those ships in numbers before they are willing to commit them."

"Yeah, they want to cause an impression, and with what I've seen the Mark II GODS do today, I'll tend to agree. But that will still leave us with older ships to do the job. They should have left the 7th in defense of Dakota and adjacent clusters, and send the 5th's Novas here. They would have considerably increased the firepower of the Hyperions of the 8th."

"What I've heard is that they wanted to upgrade the Novas with the new particle-ion hybrids that are soon to make their appearance into the Nova IVs. That way they will have a good chance against the Minbari. I think they didn't count on the Minbari to replace their losses so fast. The transfer of the 7th was already underway before the Minbari ships started to arrive in force."

"Then we are stuck with Hyperions." The Admiral chuckled. "Fifteen years ago, during the Dilgar war we would have been ecstatic of having a full Hyperion fleet. The firepower would have been impressive. Now I feel as if sailing in a sea of fire with paper ships."

"I share your feelings, Admiral."

"Get me in contact with Admiral Cotter. Use short range systems and the comm sats for relay. Make sure we don't expose any ships' position."

"Yes, Admiral." Agnar got to work, and a few seconds later, he relayed the transmission with Admiral Cotter of the 8th Fleet.

"Audio only, Admiral. Authentication confirmed."

"Admiral von Koester. I saw the battle relays. Is there any way we can assist you?" the female voice of Admiral Cotter could be heard speaking.

"Not directly Admiral. You have your job, and it's imperative the Minbari don't know you are here. But you could help me indirectly. There are several ships of the 7th Fleet making their way to reinforce the 8th. Any detachment you could spare will greatly assist me. As you know we have a lot of none jump capable vessels, and I was forced to dilute my strongest units. As soon as the Minbari starts arriving in force, we'll surely start losing a lot of ships. I may be able to reform some detachments with stronger units, but I could use with several hard hitting ships packed in single detachments to engage heavier or more numerous Minbari ships or formations."

"I see. How many ships are we talking about?"

"If I could have 1 or 2 Groups, it could help matters greatly."

"64 ships?"

"If possible, yes. If not, then 32 from one Group could really help me."

There was a moment of silence before Cotter answered. "You know the task assigned to me. Any ship I send your way is a ship that will not face the Minbari's main forces, and you know they have more than replaced their losses from the last battle. I don't even know if I can make it with the 7th Fleet's units. I'm not willing to part with them or we could risk everything. We don't even know if they will keep sending scouts or skirmishers, or if they'll send their entire Fleet next time. What I'm willing to do, is keep some detachments from the 7th Fleet deployed separately but still in range of the main ambush area. If the Minbari sends more scouts and your actual forces are not strong enough to face them, I'll assign them for your use, but until that time, I'm forced to concentrate on what forces I have for what is surely to come."

"I understand your situation, and rest assured that I'll be joining your attack. But if I can't keep this fleet from falling apart, I don't believe there will be much left to send your way. Some Hyperion detachments could reduce the number of casualties the 9th suffers, and I may be able to muster a stronger force to send in your assistance when the time comes."

Another small moment of silence before Cotter answered "OK. Take the 112th Group. There are already 3 detachments on the way. The fourth is still refueling at Signet."

The conversation continued for a moment, but von Koester had at least been able to secure a Group of Hyperions to reinforce his fleet.

* * *

For the next days, the situation was relatively calm. Only the Minbari hyperspace units remained, but on the 26th of November, just two days after the first skirmishes, a second wave of Minbari vessels arrived.

The Minbari Commander had clearly studied the previous engagements and had planned accordingly, but he still refused to send any Sharlins into normal space. Another wave of Tinashi frigates approached the Vega star with stealth systems fully active. They made the transition into normal space and relatively close to each planet. A total of 7 sets of 3 ships each entered the star system, while a Sharlin, its 8 escort Tinashis, and its complement of 15 Nials, remained in hyperspace to intercept any human ships moving to attack their scouts.

The first ship lost was a Minbari Tinashi. It was the one that approached the first moon of the second planet. This time it made the sensor sweep from 3.1 Giga meters away.

As the Minbari ship detached from its companions and approached its scanning position, the human defense grid released three missiles which went to maximum thrust. The Minbari scans swept the area identifying the number of defensive satellites deployed near the human space station. If Vice Admiral Blight had waited a little longer, enough detailed intelligence of the defense grid and specially the fact that it was indeed a human colony and not just an ambush would have been acquired by the Minbari, so even though the missiles were still more than 2 light seconds away from the Tinashi Frigate, the triangulated target information was filtered to the GODS IIs which fired in numbers against the Minbari vessel. It was completely destroyed by three impacts.

**EAS Akagi – Avenger class carrier**

**Flagship 9th Fleet**

**A few minutes earlier …**

"Is every ship ready?"

"Yes, Admiral." answered Kofoed.

"How much time?" asked von Koester.

"They have been steadily approaching at maximum thrust for the last 35 minutes. They are still a little more than 2 light seconds away."

"If Blight waits any longer, I can bet you the Minbari will shoot them down."

"The missiles are approaching erratically, Sir. They should have a hard time intercepting them at those ranges."

"I'd still bet you on that one."

Agnar was about to reply when three beams of several dozen fired, struck the Tinashi frigate completely destroying it.

"Am I still able to bet, Admiral?"

Von Koester chuckled, but he was clearly stressed of what was about to come. Every human Captain had learned to fear Minbari ships even with the successes they have had so far. The engagements were so fast that delayed decisions almost meant the destruction of the day dreaming ship. While he was not about to engage a Minbari vessel, his orders were about to force that into other Captains, and a small degree of nausea was building up inside him "OK." he said in a strong tone of voice so that everyone felt easy about what was about to come. "That's our cue. Release the Wolf Packs, and have the 141st and the 142nd ready to engage any hyperspace ambush."

This time the Minbari knew what was coming, so Admiral von Koester didn't risk a full interception, but decided to do it in stages.

The entire 139th Group jumped into hyperspace and positioned themselves to intercept the most critical group; the one that had two Tinashis remaining close to Vega II. But their hyperspace openings had been detected by probes launched by the Sharlin and its escorts deployed in hyperspace, and they moved to intercept. Monitoring of the red dense blur of hyperspace was not only a Minbari thing, as more than 40 EA ships were doing the same form outside the heliosphere to avoid detection and interception, and they also had drones and fighters dotting the inner sphere. One of those drones picked up a Minbari Tinashi before being destroyed.

A contact alert sounded in the holographic station of the Akagi, and Agnar was fast to inform. "A Minbari ship is moving to intercept the 139th in hyperspace, Sir."

"You know the drill, Agnar! Don't wait for my command!"

"I'm already on it, Admiral. The 139th had been advised, and fighters from the 141st and 142nd are heading to intercept."

Seconds passed before Agnar spoke again. "The 139th is positioning, slowing, and preparing for transition."

A tingling sensation of alert permeated the Admiral's body. His senses were in overdrive and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He didn't expect what was about to happen, but was at least fast to react. Two jump vortexes started forming from normal space and into hyperspace. It was clear the Minbari vessels in hyperspace had determined the location of the human ships jump position, and had alerted their two units in normal space at the second planet. Those didn't waste time and jumped either to retreat or to fight. But he was not going to find out, and immediately barked and order. "Interception! Release missiles and jump!"

The order filtered through the battle-net, but the Rear Admiral in command of the 139th was way ahead of him clearly showing the degree of training of EA personnel. The four carriers and four Sagittarius of the Group opened up their vortexes, and with their escorts started entering them at the same time as the Minbari Tinashis were arriving into hyperspace.

The Sharlin and its escorts made every attempt to intercept the human ships, but their range was still too high, even though that didn't stop them from firing dozens of neutron beams in their direction. One of them got more of a lucky shot than a true hit from a precise firing solution, but the strength of the beam made it irrelevant. An Olympus was struck on its port-dorsal engine mount, and the stream of neutron particles went through all the way to the other side causing havoc to the little vessel. It veered out of formation unable to rejoin the already jumping ships, and heading straight for the transitioning Tinashis. Its dutiful captain did what any true officer would do in their position. Fight to the death.

Both sides were learning the tactics of the other. The Minbari were reacting to previous engagements in normal space by intercepting the EA units in hyperspace, but that didn't mean the EA wasn't going to adapt to the Minbari strategy as well. Some missiles had been fired by the transitioning human ships, but the damaged and stranded Olympus released all of which it had available.

The Tinashis made the crossing and were fast to deal with the Olympus while accelerating away to avoid the incoming barrage. The human cylinder shaped weapons detonated at the same time as they detected that their distance to the Tinashis started to increase due to the Minbari vessel's far higher accelerations.

The advanced ships were fast, but not fast enough to avoid the shock wave of so many fusion warheads detonating in unison. The two vessels were obliterated by the huge shock wave, leaving very little in the form of structure. Hyperspace combat was a very tricky business, but one that played against the Minbari as their ship's advantages were clearly reduced, and that was something that didn't go unnoticed for the two EA Admirals present in the area.

"Tell the 139th to head for the defense grid, and have Blight cover them."

"Yes, Admiral." replied Agnar.

"Now. Where are the Starfuries?"

"With the 139th, Sir. They all jumped together."

"No. The ones in hyperspace."

The situation was chaotic, but Agnar was fast to catch up. He increased the size of the holographic representation of hyperspace, while reducing that of normal space, and showed the Admiral where those units were deployed.

"These ones are just scouts," he said while pointing to some units. "while these, these, and these are the main concentration of starfuries." he added while pointing to some massed blue dots.

"Where did the drone detect the Minbari?" asked the Admiral.

"Here," answered Agnar, pointing to a position farther away from the massed Starfuries. "and we detected weapons fire from here. So they are approaching the center of the system." he pointed to another position closer to the Starfuries.

"Press them forward! Don't let them back of! Have the capital ships fire missiles behind them, and at every position we had contact with their ships. Move the starfuries forward, but open up the umbrella. Keep them loose. And have the 141st guide them away from any Foucault current. Don't get anywhere near them, or it'll be a slaughter once the missiles detonate."

"Sir, the fighters are going to be extra vulnerable to hyperspace fighting. Do you think it wise to send so many of them to intercept the Minbari?"

"Son, it's everything but wise. But our chances in hyperspace are far better than in normal space. Give the order now, before they move away."

"Already sent them before questioning, sir. I was not rebuffing your order."

The Admiral stared at Agnar with piercing eyes, and then gratefully nodded. "This war will not be easy for us, Agnar. If we have to do what every race avoids to do to have a chance against such advanced foes, then we'll do it, but no matter what. Those ships are not getting out of there alive."

"I agree, Admiral." replied Agnar with a nod, and then the two of them turned to look at the holographic display.

Another drone and a scouting Starfury disappeared in a flash before they even got a chance to detect a Minbari ship, but the weapons fire was triangulated and the several missiles already on their way were redirect to press the Minbari forward and into the mass of Starfuries.

The first fusion detonation far behind the Minbari ships slightly lighted the red blur of hyperspace where they were located. Moments later several more fusion detonations started flashing behind the Minbari forcing the ships to accelerate forward.

There was not enough target data to launch a full missile barrage, so the EA was hitting the areas of previous contacts, but had also created a huge umbrella of Starfuries where the Minbari ships would be force to break through to avoid the exploding warheads.

It was in a sector of that umbrella that a literal hell broke loose. A Starfury was destroyed by a small beam, and then several others. The EA fighters started converging to that location, and soon more Starfuries arrived. The first engagement was done between the human fighters and the few Minbari Nials, and while human losses were high when the beams of the capital ships sum to the attack, every Nial was destroyed.

Then came the first contact with a warship, and the Starfuries quickly, but not without losses, destroyed that Tinashi with several well placed fusion missiles. The explosion of the ship erased 3 full squadrons of Starfuries.

The Minbari ships started spreading out to avoid interception, but only came in contact with different squadrons of Starfuries converging on their location. The battle lasted just a few minutes. Tinashi after Tinashi died in fiery explosions, two of them were lost without the help of the human fighters, as they were close enough to the other exploding vessels to suffer the same fate.

Quickly the only Sharlin operating in the area lost its escorts, and one after the other, the fighter based anti-capital-ship-missile made the warship crumble as their warheads buried into the crystal armor, and detonated with impunity.

The shock waves of the different ships struck one another, and after the angered and screaming waves passed, everything soon faded away into nothingness.

A few minutes passed of heavy scouting before Agnar said. "There don't seem to be any more contacts other than the two units scanning from deep hyperspace, Sir. At least we are not detecting any more sensor emissions or weapons fire."

"How many ships were there?"

"Nine, including one of their dreadnoughts. All are confirmed destroyed."

The Admiral nodded gravely. "How many fighters did we lose?"

"431, Sir. We lost two thirds of the fighters deployed on the 141st and 142nd."

The Admiral frowned, but didn't say a thing about the losses. "Have both units replaced by two Groups, and then send them to replace their losses and re-supply. But wait until we've dealt with the other Minbari ships. For the moment keep them scouting."

"Yes, Sir."

"Proceed with the attack. Let's move fast before they reinforce hyperspace."

"Yes, Admiral."

There were 6 Minbari scouting groups still on Vega, and while the critical one had been taken out, the EA couldn't allow the Minbari to fully scan the other planets, or soon their entire attention would be focused on Vega IIA. The longer they could prolong the Minbari scouting operation, the longer the chances of receiving reinforcements, and avoiding a major Fleet engagement.

The 138th was the first to make a double transition. They took the Minbari at the seventh planet by surprise, and while the battle was difficult and with a lot of losses, it was exclusively done with Starfuries.

Then followed the 137th at the sixth planet. Its Starfuries were able to destroy two of the Tinashis, but a warship interception was required for the third. It was also destroyed, but with the loss of four Artemis and two Olympus.

The 136th attacked the scouting units at the fifth planet, but at this time the Minbari had already realized that they were not going to regain contact with the units in hyperspace, because in any logical conclusion, they were most probably destroyed.

The Alyt commanding the scouting forces on the fifth planet, and after confirmation that the ships at the seventh and sixth planets were lost in combat, dispatched a single Tinashi into hyperspace to ascertain the situation. He signaled the other scout groups on the other planets to prepare for the worse.

The Tinashi that made the transition found the bulk of the EA 136th Group preparing for the assault. It not only forced the human ships to jump into normal space to avoid destruction, but alerted the two remaining ships of what was coming their way. It was able to destroy an Avenger class carrier, an Artemis frigate, and two Olympus before being overwhelmed by rail-gun rounds, and a few missiles launched by the transitioning human ships. But the losses sustained by the humans were small compared to what was waiting for them.

By being forced to jump earlier, and with the heads up given to the remaining two Tinashis, the human ships arrived in normal space out of position, and in the receiving end of antimatter, neutron and plasma beams.

The losses to the group were massive. The EA ships fired with everything they've got, and missiles launched from both; capital ships and fighters were already heading straight for the two Tinashis. Rail-gun rounds, and plasma pulses added into the huge missile release, but the distance that the hard hitting weapons had to cover to reach the Minbari ships, was enough for the Tinashis to deliver hell to the EA Capital ships.

Two Sagittarius exploded when two antimatter beams struck them head on. A pair of neutrons struck an Avenger several times until there was nothing left of it. The Artemis raced forward to cover the jump and missile capable vessels only to receive the attention of the fusion beams. A quick succession of fusion beam pulses devastated five of the human frigates to the point that little was recognizable of them.

But the amount of fire being thrown at the Minbari ships was taking its toll, forcing one of the Tinashis to deploy a spherical gravitic drive field to avoid damage from the low strength human weapons, and while it was effective in accomplishing that, it also force the Minbari ship to fire only with neutron cannons. The other Tinashi having lost one of its neutron canons to a well placed rail gun round, opted to do as much damage before being destroyed, and kept all of its weapons firing without deploying its gravitic drive field.

In the end the fusion missiles covered the distance, and that signaled the end for the two Minbari units, as the strength of the missile warheads made even the gravitic field deployed by one of the vessels irrelevant. The two ships exploded majestically.

On the other side, and full of melted holes and completely broken apart, lay the remains of 2 Avengers, 3 Sagittarius, 5 Olympus, and 7 Artemis, plus the Avenger, Artemis and 2 Olympus lost in hyperspace. 21 ships lost for 3 Minbari vessels destroyed. Only 11 human vessels from the 136th Group remained operational.

"21 ships lost, Admiral. The 136th has only two jump capable vessels."

"Keep them in normal space until we have dealt with the other Minbari units."

"Yes, Admiral. The 135th is already making its transition into hyperspace... Wait... We have outbound jump vortexes."

"How many?"

Agnar paused a little to confirm the number and answered. "9, sir."

"They are retreating. Order the 135th to maintain their position and to fire every missile they have into the opening vortexes. Have the 141st and 2nd to join in with all their missiles. Blanket the area. NOW!"

The order was filtered into the battle-net. One after the other the missiles left their launch tubes and headed to the last known position of the Minbari vortexes which had opened in three different locations.

The human missiles accelerated at maximum speed and started to spread out to increase the area of effect. They had detected the massive energy emissions of jump vortexes, but they were unable to detect the Minbari ships in the dense blur of hyperspace. Soon, the missiles started detonating one after the other. The flashes of fusion detonations were seen as lightning inside a red cloud. Thousands of missiles detonated in staggered positions all around the areas where the vortexes were detected.

In the end, two Tinashis were destroyed, mostly due to the sheer numbers of missiles, and warhead strength, than from precision firing. Seven ships left the area unscathed towards Minbari controlled space. The first, third, fourth, and fifth planets were confirmed without any human presence.

* * *

The eye of the storm returned for a second time. The few days that followed were completely uneventful, apart from the two Minbari units scanning hyperspace from long range. The EA had tried to locate them through sensor emission triangulation, but to no avail. The Minbari units turned their sensors on and off, repositioned and started again. But the range they were making their active and passive scans could only provide them with high intensity emission as those given by a beacon, and, or vortex openings.

They probably knew the number of incoming and outgoing vortexes, and could get a picture of the number of ships coming and going, but the EA had made a similar number of two way jumps. When reinforcements arrived, they did so with several ships through a single vortex, and then single ships jumped back just to show the Minbari the same number of vortexes so that they couldn't guess the number of ships present in the system. The outgoing ships then returned through the same vortex used by the reinforcements.

On the Vega colony things had also changed. A Global Orbital Defense command center was finally finished near one of the underground domed cities. At the bottom of the city, a tunnel boring machine had created a long tunnel away from the city, and at the end of it the Command center was created. This was to avoid the Minbari targeting the city as a military installation, but in any case the few civilians who had been stubborn enough to remain, had been forced to move to the other cities for safety.

Vice Admiral Blight had changed his command from the very exposed Orion space station to the underground command center.

From a fleet perspective, Admiral von Koester had disbanded some units to replace the losses sustained. The entire 142nd Group no longer existed, and only two detachments of the 141st remained, one of them with only 5 ships, but his fleet, even though with fewer vessels, was once again combat effective.

Admiral Cotter of the 8th Fleet still had her 512 Hyperions, but had been reinforced with two groups of Hyperions from the 7th Fleet that was still making the transfer from the other side of EA space. One of those groups was momentarily assigned to von Koester just in case he needed heavier firepower, but was none-the-less linked to the 8th Fleet.

Four days later, on November 30th,, a third wave of Minbari scouts arrived. Three detachments of nine ships each centered around one Sharlin, made the transition into normal space near the second, sixth, and seventh planets.

Six more detachments waited in hyperspace way outside the system's heliosphere. All of them were part of a Full Minbari Battle Group from the 2nd Attack Fleet. The Minbari commander in charge was taking even the scouting operation seriously.

Ahead of them, and heading inside the heliosphere in hyperspace were a total of 90 Nials. The entire fighter complement of the 6 Sharlins positioned in hyperspace. They were moving forward in pairs, so that they could patrol ahead to avoid a repeat of the interception that wasted a full detachment four days ago.

**EAS Akagi – Avenger class carrier**

**Flagship 9th Fleet**

**That same time …**

"Are those numbers confirmed?"

"Yes, Admiral. 9 ships on each formation. 1 of their dreadnoughts escorted by 8 destroyers. The formation at Vega II is holding station well outside GODS weapons range, while those on Vega VI and VII had jumped closer to the planet, and are on approach to them." answered Agnar Kofoed.

The Admiral was in deep thought, and took some time to answer. "There are too many."

"Yes, Admiral."

"Do we have any suggestions from the tactical systems?"

"Yes, Admiral. Previous simulations recommend at least 800 fighters to engage each formation with acceptable losses, and almost all normal space engagements met with heavy losses with less than 400."

"Two Groups?"

"With our ships? Yes, Admiral, and a full Battle Group if we are going to do the same with ships, at least with the ships we have. The 8th Fleet surely has a completely different set of combat parameters engaging with ships, but would still require the same amount of fighters if they are to engage with them."

"I know, but that is our job not the 8th's"

"I meant that we could use the Hyperions of the 7th Fleet's Group available to us."

"I'll only use them as a last resort. The Minbari have sufficient ships to make it very difficult to intercept without sustaining heavy losses, but not enough to warrant a ship attack. We'll stick with fighters as much as we can."

Agnar only nodded as he received more information from the battle-net. "Admiral, we have com emissions inside the hyperspace heliosphere boundary. A lot of it, but short burst transmissions. We have not detected any contacts, but have drones and Starfuries vectoring in."

The Admiral frowned, and after a few seconds replied. "Prepare the entire Fleet for combat, and advise the Rear Admirals that this will be a Group engagement."

"The entire fleet, Admiral?"

"Yes, Agnar. If we are picking up that many com emissions, it is because they are planning on hitting our ships before we are able to intercept their units in normal space. The 9th is evenly distributed around the heliosphere. If we all jump, we'll all act as a diversion for the units that will be going to intercept, forcing the Minbari to reconnoiter every jump vortex location, and if they commit, we'll have enough ships, fighters, and missiles to counter them."

"I agree, Admiral, but wouldn't we be sending the Minbari our force strength in this system? I mean, they are likely to guess how many ships we have."

"Yes and no. They won't know about the 8th, and they'll only be able to detect the number of jump vortexes we use. We'll concentrate every ship around the carriers, and make the jump with them."

"Yes, sir. Sending the orders."

The 9th Fleet prepared itself for combat. In the mean time, the Minbari units near the second planet detached a Tinashi for scanning operations of the EA defense grid.

**Vega IIA - Global Orbital Defense underground command bunker**

**That same time …**

"Do we have a contact?" asked Vice Admiral Roger Blight.

"Negative, Sir." answered the sensor's operator. "They shut down their sensors a few minutes after they arrived. We know where they jumped, but it's still too far away. There are several Starfuries vectoring in, but they'll take several hours to reach that position."

Blight sighed. "Keep me informed, and keep the defense grid charged and ready to fire."

"Yes, sir."

A few seconds passed, and the sensor operator spoke again. "Sir, I'm picking up tachyon emissions. It's consistent with Minbari active sensors."

The Vice Admiral didn't have to ask where, as the main screen showed the source of the emissions. It was located at 5.8 Giga meters and closing, while it also showed the closest Starfury to its position at more than 1 Giga meters away from the source.

"Do the Starfuries have a contact?"

"Not yet, sir. But they have the vector in which to focus their EMS sensors. Any time we should have enough combat data."

The few seconds that passed were heart stopping, but soon, Tachyon telemetry from the Starfuries started being received.

"We have a contact 19 light seconds away at 5.7 Giga meters. Tactical systems recommend engagement with 41 satellites and in a slashing pattern to have a successful engagement."

"Use every single one! FIRE!" ordered Blight.

The tactical station's officer assigned every unit available and gave the command.

72 GODS II released their huge capacitor banks into the particle accelerator's synchrotrons and the bright orange beams pierced the emptiness of space towards the Minbari target. The magnetic muzzle of the satellites moved the beam from one side to the other just 0.01 degrees. But at 5.7 Giga meters away that small correction on the muzzle made the beams travel in a slashing pattern from one side to the other on an area of 500 km. This allowed each satellite to cover a huge area of space in the receiving end, but highly reduced the effectiveness of the beam if it encountered a target.

The first beam to strike the Minbari Tinashi located on that area only boiled, and fractured some sections of the advanced crystal armor inflicting some damage, but the dozens of beams that struck it, completely destroyed the vessel, and only some glowing parts of its structure remained as evidence that it ever existed.

That ship was the third destroyed by the Vega colony's defense grid, and the destruction of the vessel was done just a few minutes before the 9th Fleet was ready to jump.

**EAS Akagi – Avenger class carrier**

**Flagship 9th Fleet.**

**7 minutes later.**

"All Groups are reporting ready to jump, Sir." stated Kofoed.

"Do we have any contacts?"

"No, Sir. The Starfuries have only encountered enemy fighters. They have been able to intercept a few, and have sustained moderate losses while doing so, but they have not encountered any capital ships."

"I'm sure they're still outside the heliosphere. Do we have a vector?"

"Yes, Admiral. We are receiving com emissions vectoring from Minbari controlled space, but single contacts and alternating. I'm sure they have many ships, but they are responding to their fighters with a single vessel, and then switch to another to avoid precision tracking. We only know the general direction of the vessels responding, but they could have the rest of their ships anywhere."

"And they probably have." replied von Koester. "Have the 134th and 133rd to fire a few missiles from each capable ship towards that area. Have them on cruise and opened wide. I want some weapons ready to engage the moment we detect any Minbari presence."

"Yes, sir."

The order was released to the two Groups currently patrolling hyperspace, and soon a couple of missiles from each capable ship left their launch tubes vectoring towards Minbari controlled space and the source of the emissions. The missiles opened their approach formation wide to cover more space, and kept their plasma engines on cruise. As soon as the Admiral saw that the missiles crossed the boundary where some of his ships were to make the transition, he gave the order. "This is 9th Fleet Actual to all Groups. You have your orders. Commence operations immediately."

Every detachment centered around their carriers. Jump and non-jump-capable ships gathered around them, and waited for the vortexes to form which they did just a few seconds later. 42 jump vortexes, representing every available normal space deployed detachments of the 9th Fleet, opened all around the Vega star's hyperspace heliosphere boundary.

In hyperspace, the lateral hangar doors of the EA Avenger class carriers opened up, and the thousands of Nova class Starfuries arrayed inside them started pouring out.

The capital ships started spreading around to avoid being damaged if a sister ship exploded nearby. The hyperspace Foucault currents, which amplified every explosion, were very hard to monitor as they were not only difficult to detect, but they shifted with still unknown patterns. But while the ships spread out to avoid them, they still kept sufficiently close to jump capable vessels in case they needed to jump away.

Electronic countermeasures were a common thing, and while every Human ship was operating under complete electronic silence, they were still supplemented by the huge amount of Starfuries with Wild Weasel load-outs that were filling hyperspace with wide area jamming emissions on an intermittent mode, but with the thousands of Starfuries deployed, it was a massive jamming operation. Nevertheless, the Minbari reaction was swift but not unexpected. Every single one of their ships went active, and the powerful tachyon emissions of 54 vessels were strongly felt by every passive sensor of the human fleet.

The Human reaction was fast as well. The entire 35th Battle Group and the 132nd and 131st Groups of the 33rd Battle Group headed to intercept the ships deployed in normal space. Two Groups per Minbari formation. The rest of the 9th Fleet prepared to hold any approach in hyperspace.

"Target enemy sensor's emissions, and start firing missiles. A full volley using 25 percent of them." ordered von Koester.

"Yes, Sir." replied Kofoed.

"Have every single Starfury ready for attack. Mark two heliosphere diameters out of the border from where they are approaching as a no crossing line. If the Minbari breach it, have every Starfury to launch an attack, and the entire fleet to move away from Vega."

"Sir?"

"They were able to detect our ships at VCB-165. Their fire came from inside the heliosphere of that system, and into units that were at the core. We know for certain that they can detect and target us at those distance. I'm hoping that two diameters are enough to avoid them targeting our capital ships, but I won't risk them coming any closer. If they cross that line, I want our capital ships to move away from Vega to avoid interception."

"Yes, sir."

"Also, set all the missiles fired first to engage the enemy's sensor emissions at flank."

"Yes, sir."

Missiles from every human detachment in hyperspace started pouring out. The thousands of contrails could have been easily seen in normal space, but the dense blur of hyperspace masked their emissions easily. The weapons quickly went into maximum thrust heading towards the Minbari sensor emissions. At the same time, the small amount of missiles that were fired first, accelerated to flank heading on the same direction as the ones behind them.

Flashes lighted up hyperspace. The Minbari had detected the missile approach, and had started firing their weapons in slashing patterns to allow for easier interception. The human weapons were programmed to detonate on contact, or by remote detonation, and every Minbari beam that struck one of the highly evasive cruising missiles, made them explode.

"Minbari fleet formation pattern is shifting." stated Kofoed.

"They are clearly trying to keep their distance from the missile blasts. I think we'll have enough time after all. Are the interception Groups ready?"

"Almost, sir. The 132nd is still moving into position."

"OK. Prepare another volley. Launch it as soon as the second wave reaches mid point."

"Yes, Sir... Wait... Enemy ships are shutting down their sensors. There are only a few vessels with their systems on. They are shifting again."

"Tricky bastards." replied von Koester with a sigh. "Cancel last, but keep all missiles ready to launch."

"Yes, Sir."

The second missile volley crossed the line established by von Koester, and immediately the Minbari started shifting sensors to ships close to the missiles to allow for easier interception. Massive fusion explosions dotted hyperspace at the distance, but no Minbari ships were destroyed by the blasts. The missiles exploded by the precise neutron firing of the Minbari vessels, and while they were unable to score a kill, they were still able to stop the Minbari advanced, allowing the strike groups a chance to complete their objectives.

"Sir, the 132nd is reporting ready. Shall I give the order?" asked Agnar.

"Confirm the position of the three Minbari ship groups in normal space, and order the attack in unison."

"Sir, the Minbari units close to Vega II are outside the defense grid weapon and sensor range. We only have a general vector."

"What about the other two?"

"They are close to the planets, and approaching with active sensors. We have a good fix on their positions."

"We can't wait any longer. Have the two fixed Minbari groups engaged, and have our forces intercepting Vega II on hold in hyperspace, but ready to engage any Minbari escape from that area."

"Yes, Sir. Relaying orders."

A few seconds later, the units that were to intercept Minbari forces at the sixth and seventh planets opened their vortexes to deploy their Starfuries. Almost eight hundred human fighters on each location jumped into the prepared but unsuspecting Minbari ships.

With two human groups engaging each position, the Minbari were attacked in each location by a force of almost 800 Starfuries from eight different set of jump vortexes completely covering every escape sector.

Missiles poured out of the blossoming human fighters. Thousands of contrails from anti-capital-ship and anti-fighter missiles could be seen as a majestic display of firepower. The human pilots didn't relent on their attack, and used even the low powered anti-fighter missiles against the Minbari weapon turrets and sensors. The range was still high, but the missiles were approaching form different vectors except from behind, as they had no chance of defeating the Minbari acceleration from that area, and the Minbari accumulated speed meant that they couldn't avoid the barrage in time if they tried to retreat through the same area.

The human missiles were numerous, but the Minbari return fire was impressive. The EMP guns of the Sharlins were supplemented by every fusion, and neutron canon available. Only the massive anti-capital-ship antimatter and neutron guns remained silent.

On one of the planets, the Minbari powered off their gravitic drives to avoid approaching the barrage faster than they wanted. They couldn't set their engines in full reverse as the gravitic field required to do so would have hampered forward weapons fire from any weapon other than neutron guns, so the ships kept their momentum with every gun firing at the human missile approach. It was at the last moment, and only after inflicting serious losses to the human fighter wings, that they gave the order to retreat as they knew they couldn't stop the missile volley.

The entire Minbari detachment jumped into hyperspace only to run into the prepared guns of the 132nd and 131st Groups. Each detachment had a Hyperion with them, and the eight vessels of that class immediately made it clear why they were considered one of the most powerful ships of the Dilgar War. They were definitely far less advanced than even the Minbari Tinashis, but they were powerful none the less. The humans had deployed their Hyperions behind the Artemis and Olympus with their dorsal fire arcs ready and able.

The six main plasma canons from each ship started firing towards the opening vortexes and compensating for Hyperspace magnetic fields even before any Minbari ship could be glimpsed. The 638 TW turrets were nowhere as powerful as those equipped on the Novas, but the two 319 TJ bolts that were leaving each of them every second, made for a very dense wall of plasma.

Without the Hyperions, the Human ships would had already been preparing to jump away and releasing some missiles towards the opening vortexes, but with them, the tactical situation was different, as was attested by the Artemis and Olympus in combat formation, and with all weapons firing into the opening vortexes.

Only the Avengers, and Sagittarius kept their distance, but the last ones were ready to reciprocate with missiles in case the main combat force proved ineffective, missiles that could not be used in such close proximity as the fusion explosions would had been as harmful to EA ships as to Minbari ones, but they were still prepared to redeem their comrades if they were defeated.

The Minbari vessels made the transition, and their crystal armor immediately took the brunt of the attack. The human Captains knew the consequence of one of those ships blowing up in such close proximity, and had ordered their gunners to target the Minbari weapons and drive systems first. The first barrage struck a Tinashi. Twelve plasma pulses from a Hyperion, and several smaller ones from the Artemis and Olympus, plus rail gun rounds made their way into its crystal armor every second.

The massive barrage that the Minbari ship was receiving was being repeated with the others. The Minbari gunners made the mistake to analyze the targets and assign their firing solutions to Olympus and Sagittarius, as their combat information systems flagged them as the most deadly of the ships detected, and while the return fire was devastating to the poor human corvettes, it allowed time for the strong Hyperion Alpha strikes to do the their job.

The entire frontal area of the targeted Tinashi was shredded by the huge amount of plasma rounds it had received. Attesting to the strength of the Minbari vessel was the fact that it had received more firepower than what a Dilgar Mishakur class dreadnought could have absorbed, and the small Minbari ship was still giving a valiant fight. One if its undamaged beams pierced an Olympus with several hits. The sturdy human vessel broke apart very fast to the extremely powerful secondary fusion guns of the Minbari frigate.

The Human onslaught was only returned in kind by the Minbari, but before any side could have forced a defeat into the other, the complete chaos surrounding the battle field meant that every care taken into avoid destroying the gravitic reactors of the Minbari ships met with failure, and a Tinashi's quantum gravimetric reactor lost containment exploding with the strength of two human fusion warheads.

The massive shock-wave generated by such explosion washed away several of the nearby ships that not only included other Minbari vessels, but nearby Human ones. The firepower of the Minbari side was greatly depleted, allowing the remaining human warships to concentrate their fire in a smaller number of units.

The few Tinashis left were mauled and heavily damaged by the Human attack, but the scarred, damaged, but still operational Sharlin was still giving hell to the human formation. Its gunners had already identified the Hyperion as the gravest threat, and the main bow cannon opened fired almost point blank into one of the human cruisers. The result of the Minbari weapon interaction with the thick Hyperion armor was the same as that of an aluminum paper foil facing and industrial blow torch. The ship was completely destroyed.

The Humans didn't let the loss of a Hyperion alter them, and immediately every available ship turned their sights into the Sharlin. The Minbari vessel being now the center of attention, and with the huge amount of plasma pulses striking it, not much time passed until a second more powerful explosion filled that area of hyperspace.

The last remaining Tinashis and many Human ships were literally washed out by the explosion. 8 Tinashis and 1 Sharlin had been destroyed at the cost of 3 Hyperions, 4 Sagittarius, 9 Artemis, and 10 Olympus, most of them destroyed by the explosion than by Minbari weapons fire. The cost was high, but at least the Earth Alliance was showing the Minbari that they were a force to be reckoned with, and a race willing to pay the highest of price to stop them in their tracks.

Even with the huge jamming in the area, this time the combat data had reached the Minbari forces in hyperspace, and they were now aware of the new threat in the form of the Hyperions. The presence of a unit that while it couldn't compete one on one against a Tinashi, was still able to throw an impressive amount of plasma fire, was a reason for concern in the hands of a now accepted capable enemy.

The battle was not over. The second Minbari group being engaged by the Starfuries in normal space was seeking a completely different strategy. Instead of shutting down their engines, firing and escaping to fight in hyperspace, the commander of this group ordered his units to accelerate at maximum thrust, and to concentrate all fire on the forward vectors. The human Starfuries and missiles approaching form that sector were almost washed away by the intense firing, but while the strategy was deadly to the Earth Alliance's fighter wings, it proved deadly for the Minbari ships and fighters as well.

The 15 Nials available in the formations were destroyed by the anti-fighter missiles launched by the huge amount of Starfuries, and their mothership was also the center of attention for a great percentage of the anti-capital-ship missiles launched. The point defense guns of the Minbari ships were firing with unerring precision and speed, but the amount of missiles fired were proving overwhelming, and the destruction of the single Sharlin proved to the remaining ships that going through a densely packed wall of missiles wasn't the best option on the tactical market.

Soon, one after the other, the number of Tinashis started to dwindle, but the beam firepower on that area had been so strong, that two scarred vessels made it through. One of them was venting atmosphere and had its port side gravitic fin missing, while the other received several impacts of anti-fighter missiles in some of its turrets and armor, but both vessels were still combat able.

The human reaction was swift. The 140th and 139th Groups of the 35th Battle Group opened up eight jump vortexes creating a sphere around the remaining Minbari vessels. The 35th had no Hyperions available, so the attack was performed with Olympus, Artemis, and Sagittarius, and while the older ships were no match to a Tinashi, the amount of them made that reality moot, but still didn't save them from suffering several losses.

Again, the first Artemis out of the jump vortexes payed the price of challenging such advanced vessels, But the human ships were coming out of 8 hyperspace openings, and the firepower concentrated on the two Minbari ships was just too much for them to absorb in the conditions they were in.

Fusion, Neutron, and the occasional antimatter beam made their way into the Human ships, while the slower missiles, rail-gun and plasma rounds made it to the Minbari vessels. The humans losses were high, but once their ordnance reached the Minbari positions, the battle was over.

1 Sharlin, and its 8 Tinashi escorts were destroyed at the cost of 6 Artemis, 3 Olympus, and 1 Sagittarius. The losses were high as it had become common, but the Minbari presence in Vega was thankfully now only concentrated close to the second planet.

**EAS Akagi – Avenger class carrier**

**Flagship 9th Fleet.**

**That same time …**

"Anything on the second planet?"

"No, Admiral. The 138th and 137th are alternating their jump capable ships into deploying drones into the area. There are more than a dozen already in normal space, and they have linked their EMS/STL systems, but there is too much space to cover. As long as the Minbari keep a low profile we won't have a general vector to concentrate our efforts in." answered Kofoed.

The minutes passed, and the Minbari seemed to have disappeared on normal space as well as in hyperspace, but the first sign to the contrary, were several active sensor signatures closer to the Vega IIA defense grid.

"Sir, we are picking energy emissions close to the defense grid. Minbari active sensors. Emission's profile identify them as fighters."

"How close?"

"1.2 Giga meters, and closing. Vice Admiral Blight is dispatching fighters from the Station, and vectoring patrols towards them."

"Have a detachment from the 138th deployed into that area, and keep the rest of it and the 137th ready in case the Minbari capitals show their hands."

"Yes, Sir."

"Use the detachment's carrier to deploy, but keep that vessel in hyperspace. Have the fighters return via Sagittarius."

"Yes, Sir."

The Human forces jumped into normal space with 1 Sagittarius, 3 Artemis, 3 Olympus, and 96 Starfuries. They immediately engaged the Minbari fighters, but they made their jump close to one of the sensor emission detected. The Minbari fighters in that area were easily taken care of with the use of interceptors, and the anti-fighter missiles from the Starfuries. Very few Human fighters were lost, but the area in which they jumped, placed them out of position to engage the other Minbari fighters, and a total of 7 out of 15 kept their relentless advance towards the defense grid.

The human detachment jumped back via the Sagittarius jump engines, and another one made the jump to intercept the already spread out Minbari fighter formation, taking several more fighters out of the equation.

The remaining Minbari fighters were destroyed by the vectored Human Starfuries that were already on patrol.

For the Minbari, the loss of their fighters meant a reduced amount of information regarding the defense grid, but enough data was now on their hand about the Vega star system to decide whether to take or avoid it.

The last skirmish of the Vega campaign was about to begin, and while for the Minbari it was only an operation to retrieve the forces still deployed in Vega's normal space, for the 9th Fleet, it was a full fledged operation requiring every available asset to counter the attack.

The first sign of warning came when Minbari sensor emissions were detected all around the Vega's star heliosphere boundary on hyperspace. The Minbari had seen the missile swarm approach, and had decided to power off their sensors, and move in individual units to surround the star from every direction. The result was that the Human missiles were coasting towards an area of space with no Minbari ships, and that every other direction not including the approach from the Signet cluster had been covered by the 56 Minbari vessels.

The result wasn't catastrophic due to the fact that Human vessels were on stealth mode and emitting no emissions, while at the same time, the thousands of Starfuries deployed were jamming the area close to them. Minbari sensors, while being very advanced, were still not strong enough to pierce the jamming in the thick red blur of hyperspace, but that didn't prevent some Human ships being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The 141st Group of the 36th Battle-Group, which only consisted of two detachments, with one of them under-strength, was deployed as reserve outside the Heliosphere boundary on the right side of the ecliptic facing Minbari space.

An Avenger was destroyed when every single forward beams of a Sharlin struck it with full force. The human units had already responded when the sensor system of the enemy vessel went active, and every single missile of every capable unit were leaving their launch tubes when the Avenger was destroyed, but even though the Earth Alliance units were responding to the assault, the Minbari ship was sufficiently far away to enjoy of ample time to do its job.

One after the other, and starting with the bigger easier-to-detect ships, the Minbari Sharlin made it clear the huge technological disparity between both forces. The commander of the 141st ordered the immediate jump to avoid any further loss, but the destruction of the three Avengers present, left only a Sagittarius with the jump capability to retreat. In the end, only said Sagittarius with 3 Olympus left in one piece. The remaining 3 Artemis and 3 Olympus met the same fate as the previously engaged Avengers.

Such loss of life and units was somehow avenged by the destruction of the offending Sharlin at the hands of the missiles and Starfuries present in the area, but the 9 to 1 kill ratio was not something that improved morale for the rest of the Fleet, even if they were acting in Group commands, and not as a whole.

Admiral von Koester knew that his fleet was compromised, but also knew that activating engines and firing missiles would probably mark them as targets, so he gave the order to re-vector the already launched missiles, and to rely on Starfuries to get the job done. He then asked Agnar. "Are we having any other weapons fire from the Minbari?"

"No, Sir."

"Then mark four times the distance the Minbari vessel engaged the 141st as a no fly zone for the rest of the ships. If any enemy ship enters that range, the units compromised are to fire all their missiles. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Admiral. Transmitting orders via Starfury relays."

The tension was high, and in the mean time, the wings of Starfuries made their approach, while the Minbari did the same at high speed.

In some areas, the Human Starfuries were able to reach some Minbari ships. Some were detected and fired upon while the enemy vessel retreated, but in two circumstances, the Human fighters were able to close the distance with pure momentum to strike at their targets with impunity. Two Tinashis were destroyed this way.

In other areas, the Minbari ships entered the no-fly-zone of the 133rd and 136th Groups. Both human units did as they were ordered. Every single missile-capable-unit fired their ordnance, and as believed by the Admiral, the Minbari units fired back at the source of the emissions.

Beams, and missiles and Starfuries crossed paths, while the Human capital ships desperately jumped away to avoid destruction. An Avenger, a Hyperion, a Sagittarius, an Artemis, and 3 Olympus were destroyed before the two Human Groups escaped, but their missiles barrage made quick work of two more Tinashis, but even though the Human fighters were not in attack range, many of them were destroyed by the shock-waves created by the fusion detonations, and suffered heavy losses in consequence.

Of the 13 groups still available on the 9th Fleet, 5 have jumped to normal space to either retreat or engage Minbari forces, and 2 had received heavy losses while fighting the Minbari in hyperspace. That left only 6 groups to face a determined foe, but thankfully there were still thousands of fighters conducting hunter-killer operations in hyperspace, and it was them which did most of the fighting.

The Minbari kept their approach towards the location of their forces deployed in normal space, and that got them in contact with more and more Starfuries. Losses accumulated fast for the human fighters, but the more than a thousand Starfuries lost, made the Minbari pay a relatively high price. 11 Tinashis and a Sharlin were destroyed, before the 138th and 137th Groups that were covering the escape route of the Minbari ships in Vega II, became compromised.

"Sir, the Minbari are approaching the location of the 138th and 137th. Our other groups should be safe to engage at the distances they are deployed." stated Kofoed.

"Good. Tell every able ship to fire missiles, and for Starfuries to pull back. Tell the ships being approached to hold their fire for our other missiles to close, but have them release all of their available mines. As soon as the Minbari enter their no-fly-zone, have them jump away, launching some missiles to cover their retreat." the Admiral sighed, and then added. "Let's hope the Minbari units in normal space are not in firing or sensor range, or things will end badly for them either way."

"Yes, Sir. Sending orders."

The 134th and 135th Groups of the 34th Battle-Group, plus the 129th and 130th Groups of the 33rd Battle-Group fired all of their missiles while moving away of the Vega system to avoid interception. The human fusion warhead equipped weapons accelerated away towards the Minbari forces heading for the core of the system, while the 138th and 137th started releasing all of their available mines.

The small spherical weapons used their thrusters to increase the distance between each other, creating a huge sphere of mines where each explosion would amplify the ones adjacent to it.

The two human groups holding station above Vega II started firing their missiles when the Minbari crossed their no-fly-zone. Green beams immediately pierced the dark red of hyperspace. Many shots missed, but the slashing pattern the Minbari were employing, allowed their weapons to score hits. The impressive power of their beams allowed for even a small exposure to be lethal, and the fact was attested by the destruction of seven of the escaping ships, which included 4 Olympus, an Artemis, a Sagittarius, and an Avenger.

The Minbari had detected the two sets of missiles launches, so their urgency in retrieving their normal space units became a rush. As soon as they detected hyperspace openings from the Human ships, they ordered their units to jump to hyperspace, and they did.

Human and Minbari vortexes crossed paths. Some Minbari units arrived in hyperspace before the last human ships left to normal space. The destruction of the lagged units was swift, and the 551st detachment ceased to exist. 3 Olympus, 3 Artemis, and a Sagittarius joined their previously destroyed Avenger detachment flag ship.

The Minbari joyful cheers were quickly stifled by the fact they had arrived inside a minefield. The guns of the advanced warships slashed away against the static weapons which were programmed to detonate if 10 percent of their numbers had been destroyed. That percentage was reached fast, and a massive fusion shock-wave washed away the entire retreating Minbari Group. A Sharlin and the remaining 7 Tinashis were completely destroyed.

The same shock-wave caused some damage to the other approaching Minbari ships, but they were thankful of being sufficiently far away to avoid destruction. But it was not the end. The two sets of missiles converged on their location forcing the Minbari units to scatter to avoid a repeat of the previous loss. The hundreds of missiles were not programmed to detonate on impact, but on a predetermined position. Many of them were destroyed, but those which made it through taught the Minbari not to concentrate ships in hyperspace.

In unison every warhead detonated. Many of the 39 remaining scattered Minbari ships were inside the blast zones. 2 Sharlins and 15 Tinashis were obliterated, with several others sustaining damage.

**EAS Akagi – Avenger class carrier**

**Flagship 9th Fleet.**

**That same time …**

"Signal the Starfuries. They are to engage immediately. Don't let the Minbari move away from the core."

"Yes, Admiral." replied Kofoed.

"Where are our missiles? Show me."

Agnar increased the range of the display to show the entire hyperspace battle-field. The center was still active with a total of 22 red dots. Thousands of Starfuries were vectoring in, but on the outskirts of the system and coming from Minbari controlled space were the hundreds of missiles fired on one of the initial salvos that the Minbari flanked to avoid them.

"There, Admiral. They are on flank heading towards the Minbari forces."

"Shut them down."

"Admiral?"

"Now Mr. Kofoed!"

Agnar didn't waste time, and the missiles engines shut down. It was just seconds until Agnar found out what was in the Admiral's mind. The missiles were now coasting towards the Minbari positions still outside their active sensor ranges, but before he could say anything. The red dots disappeared.

"Sir, they have shut down their active sensors. We have no way of tracking them now."

"Calculate their last know heading and acceleration, and have our missiles detonate on the intersecting position. Have our Starfuries do the same. They should arrive far earlier. I want them to make just one pass. If they don't find targets, they are to move away to avoid the missile blasts."

"Yes, sir."

Squadrons upon squadrons of Starfuries moved in wide formations from different vectors towards the last know Minbari positions. The Human pilots were barely able to watch even their wing mans, as they had increased their range to cover more area. They were only watching their lock on the beacons to keep their heading on the designated battle-net trajectory assigned to each squadron.

On the Admiral's holographic display on the EAS Akagi, the blue dots representing the fighter formations were converging towards a center formed by a decreasing fighter sphere. He saw the image at the same time Agnar spoke.

"One Starfury destroyed. Another one! Weapons fire detected! Fighters are triangulating. CONTACT! We've got contact!"

A red dot lighted up in on of the borders of the fighter sphere. A few seconds later, every Starfury in that sector, disappeared from the holographic display as well as the Minbari contact.

"Speak to me, Agnar." said von Koester.

"Our Starfuries fired their missiles at point blank, sir. We lost three squadrons. 36 fighters. Enemy ship is believed destroyed."

The Admiral wasn't given the chance to respond, when the holographic display started losing blue dots in several sectors. Red contact marks started lighting up, and then disappeared the same way as before.

"God Damn it! We are losing a lot of good people out there! Research and Development better come with a solution for automation fast, or I'll get back there and bang their heads until a solution comes out!"

Agnar didn't take his eyes from the display, and was watching every battle-net alert, but he still answered the Admiral. "Unmanned fighters are highly susceptible to hacking or jamming, and a decent enough AI to mount on fighter systems is not an easy solution. It's a priority, but a bigger priority are the capital ships. I don't think we'll be seeing self-sufficient unmanned fighters soon enough, sir."

The Admiral just sighed, and spoke again when there were no more contacts. "How many?"

"13 enemy ships destroyed, including 1 dreadnought. 579 Starfuries lost. We detected a total of 22 sensor emissions earlier. There should be only 9 enemy ships left. We could have the Hyperions from the 7th Fleet on intercept."

"No. They are not in the best of positions. I don't believe we'll be able to cut them off. They'll face the missiles we have left, and that's it. Tell Admiral Cotter that the 7th Fleet's Hyperions are under her command. We didn't need to use them, and tell her that we are leaving to refuel and rearm at the supply depots. She'll be alone for a couple of days."

"Yes, Admiral."

The last 9 Minbari ships moved towards Minbari controlled space. Their crews were sighing in relief when every vessel started to shake intensely. The waves of fusion detonations washed on their vessels hard. Three Tinashis and the last Sharlin were lost with all hands. Only 5 Minbari vessels left Vega space alive, albeit with heavy damage.

The 9th Fleet had been tested to its limits, but they had been relatively victorious. Their losses had been high compared to the Minbari, but the boneheads didn't come out unscathed, as the loss of almost an entire battle-group was a hard thing to swallow.

* * *

**Hyperspace – Near Minbari border**

**Approaching Sh'Lekk'Tha system**

**EAS Pythia – Oracle class cruiser**

**December 7, 2245**

"Captain Cunning."

Erin just turned to see her navigator, and nodded.

"We are picking up Minbari beacon tachyon frequency. We have a lock with an intensity registering at 7.32 percent."

"Keep all systems at full stealth. Slow the vessel down and prepare to deploy Beacons. How is our link with the Didyma?"

"Holding strong, Ma'am."

The Pythia had been deploying Beacons all the way to the Minbari system of Sh'Lekk'Tha, but the last leg of the deploying operation was done without the use of any beacon for navigation. Instead, the Ranger detachment was using all of its ships to keep a navigational line open. If there weren't any beacons deployed, it would have been an extremely risky operation, as the loss of contact with a single unit would have meant that the rest of the ships out of the line would get lost, but in this case, the risk was lessen by the fact that they had deployed beacons all along the route, and in case of a loss of contact they could activate them. The problem was that they would lose the element of surprise, as the Minbari would certainly detect the beacon emissions and would be better prepared to defend themselves.

"I have said this before, and I don't want to sound repetitive, but it's important you understand that the success of the initial attack will be determined by the fact that we get detected or not. If the Minbari even suspect that we have the entire Ranger Fleet a few days from here, there won't be any chance we'll be able to inflict as much damage as we want. We need to cause such an impression that they focus their resources in engaging us and not our Fleets in EA space. Just keep that link safe. I don't want to be forced to activate any beacon."

"No problem, Ma'am. We are still redundant. I can reach the vessel beyond the Didyma if necessary. We are using only 40 percent of the power output on our com systems. The 8 ship line to the beacon is strong." replied the Navigational officer."

"Good. Lieutenant. Keep it that way. Now have the first beacon deployed, and then reposition to deploy the rest as we talk about."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Behind the Pythia detachment the entire Ranger Fleet composed of the remaining 52 Oracles, and 79 Sagittarius were just four days of reaching the Sh'Lekk'Tha beacon. Human forces were preparing to strike inside Minbari space. The bet was now on the table, and it was time for the Minbari to either fold, call, or raise it.

* * *

**Vega Cluster Beacon 165 – Minbari controlled space**

**Drala Fi – Shargoti class War Cruiser**

**December 8, 2245**

The Drala Fi was one of the few Shargoti class War Cruisers. It was a subclass of the Sharlin, and designed specifically as command and control vessel for every Minbari Fleet. Not even the Valen'Tha had this configuration, as that ship, even with all of its modifications, was built for the Grey Council long before the Shargoti design was even considered. There were only 6 ships available; one on each defense Fleet.

Now that the 6th Defense Fleet had been reassigned to form the 1st Attack Fleet, The Shargoti assigned to it was transfered to the 1st Defense Fleet protecting Minbar, as the Drala Fi that used to command that Fleet was moved some time ago to Human space for command of the offensive forces.

The Shargoti was very similar in many respects to the Sharlin. The differences were the nearly doubling of the thickness of its crystal armor, a highly modified and robust communications and control system, and a bigger hangar bay for increased fighter protection. While these modifications made the vessel slightly larger than the Sharlin, it had the same reactors, weapons, and gravitic drive. This made the Shargoti very survivable against energy weapons fire, and the preferred platform for command and control, but made the Sharlin faster, and with the same firepower it still retained the preference of its crew as the preferred combat platform compared to the Shargoti. But for the purpose of command and control, and combat endurance the Shargoti was unbeatable.

The Flagship of the 1st Attack Fleet was surrounded by 80 Sharlins and 648 Tinashis. The 2nd Attack Fleet was farther away and protecting the supply depot. It contained including the vessels on patrol and those few that returned from Vega, a total of 26 Sharlins and 198 Tinashis.

Inside the Drala Fi's holographic chamber, things were about to get in motion.

The Alyt of the ship entered the chamber, stood firm, and said. "Shai Alyt Ner'shen, I report as requested."

"Alyt Aeraan, I have given the command. We are leaving as soon as every ship reports ready."

"At last Shay Alyt, we'll avenge our fallen brothers."

Both command officers were of the Wind Swords clan who had lost a huge amount of its members on the battle that took place at VCB-37. Neither of the two strong looking Minbari had any kind of trouble in facing the humans. But for Shai Alyt Ner'shen, one of the most experienced officers in the Minbari Fleet, a degree of respect had started building up inside him. He knew the ships he was facing. He considered them relics, not even worthy of being called warships, but the Humans had still been able through sheer brilliant tactical thinking to inflict heavy losses to his forces. He knew quite well, that in an even technological fight, the Minbari would probably be fighting for their lives in home space.

After the losses sustained at the Battle of VCB-37, and the ones lost in reconnoitering the current human system, he was sure that any encounter with the Humans would be at least close to deadly if not enough precautions were taken. He had sent different recon waves to explore the Human world, and in every one of them he had thought that his forces were ready, only to receive a beating by the Humans. He knew he was inflicting more losses than he was sustaining, but even if he increased the number of units sent, the Humans still managed to break their backs, not to mention their pride.

He knew that given enough time, the Minbari would learn their lessons, and would start fighting more effectively, and in every respect it was true. The problem was that the Humans were not only getting better, but stronger. He was aware of better quality ships reaching the front lines, but their commanders were getting as bold as to risk fighting in hyperspace. Something that only Valen risked doing against the Shadows nearly a thousand years ago, and that still today was considered to be extremely risky. He knew that for Valen those tactics helped shorten the technological gap between the Shadows, and was quite aware that for the humans it was having the same effects.

He needed to fight in normal space, but also knew that the humans would seek otherwise. His strategy was centered in the premise of avoiding fights in hyperspace, and that required his forces to maneuver through it without being intercepted. He had study the human fighting strategies for the past few days, and had come up with a counter strategy to allow his units to position themselves in normal space safely.

"It is my hope that our brothers are avenged, but it is my responsibility to keep this fleet from being avenged in the future. We need to survive this battle, and I can guarantee you that the humans will do everything in their power to avoid that. They are cunning a race, Aeraan. They are deceptive, skillful, clever and ingenious. We are not fighting them above Minbar, only because our technology is far superior. They are the perfect tool for the Shadows. Even if some members of the council are not fully convinced about them being Shadow thralls, the possibility that a race of this skill is given advanced technology by them is unconceivable as they would become unstoppable. We can't allow that to happen. Even if they are a good race, we just can't risk it."

"You speak of them with respect. Do you really consider them able to defeat our fleets and defenses?"

"Wouldn't you respect an enemy that is able to defeat you, when you are using an energy weapon and him just a knife? That is what we are seeing here. I wouldn't use their ships not even as transports, and here they are, facing the mighty Minbari Fleet, and making us bleed for every system we move forward. Yes, Alyt. I do consider them capable of defeating us. Not because they are superior, but because we have grown complacent with our technology. We think that we are so advanced that every enemy that faces our guns would be defeated, but it never occurred to us that those enemies would probably seek ways to avoid our guns. We need to grow not only in knowledge but also in wisdom. Even if what I'm about to say sounds bad, we must learn to fight as the humans do. We must learn to adapt to every circumstance."

"We no longer have Valen to fight for us. We must learn to do that by ourselves. The Humans have proved that we are not ready to fight against the Shadows. We must teach them otherwise. And I intend to do it now. Head for the bridge and take us to hyperspace as soon as every ship is ready."

"Yes, Shai Alyt. What about the 2nd Attack Fleet?"

"I have ordered them to keep some vessels for defense, and some others to cover the approaches, while the rest of the fleet will move to back us up in case we need to replace losses."

Aeraan nodded, and left the holographic chamber to proceed as ordered.

A few minutes later, the entire Minbari 1st Attack Fleet entered hyperspace. The vortex emissions were picked up by the recon satellites deployed around the system, and by the spy satellite deployed relatively close to the Minbari depot. The Human forces at Vega were now aware of the Minbari approach, and were preparing themselves for the welcoming ceremony.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note:**

- Special thanks for jdog1021 for making this chapter readable, and for those of you who encouraged me to continue writing. It was difficult to get this chapter out due to lack of writing time, but it's here at last. Thanks!

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

**Deep space supply depot – Interstellar space near Vega.**

**EAS Akagi – Avenger class carrier**

**Flagship 9th Fleet**

**December 10, 2245**

The Akagi was floating alongside its entire battle-group in one of the four deep space supply depots created near Vega. Hundreds of containers were floating in neat order all around them. Some were full of missiles, others of fuel, and a few of ammunition for rail-guns. Close to the containers were line after line of Starfuries ready for pick up, and while the 9th Fleet was now at full fighter capacity, it was clear that the logistical operation performed during the past months had moved more than enough of everything, as there was plenty left over from rearming the 9th Fleet.

There were a few Cotton class tenders among the large number of Tonka class construction Starfuries still performing the resupply operation, but very few of them actually doing anything, because the Fleet was almost ready to go.

"We need to move now! The 8th Fleet's scouts began picking increased com activity and jamming in hyperspace 30 minutes ago, and we know the Minbari Fleet jumped two days ago. They have made a slow approach, but I'm sure it's them. If we are not in striking range within two hours, we'll jeopardize the entire 8th Fleet defensive operation. We need to be there now Lieutenant Commander."

"Just 10 more minutes, Admiral. The extra pilots needed to fully man our Starfuries are being moved to the Carriers via shuttle as we speak." replied Agnar.

"You said 10 minutes, 10 minutes ago. If in 10 minutes we are not ready, we are leaving without them. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Admiral."

"Signal the Fleet, every ship in every supply depot. We jump in 10 minutes."

The supply depots not only had a lot of hardware available in the containers and tenders, but they also got a few requisitioned passenger liners with replacement pilots on permanent station. The losses had been so high that while they had enough Starfuries in the depots for replacements, the extra pilots required had to be brought in from Signet as those in the liners had not been enough to fully replace the losses. The Hyperions making their way to Vega as reinforcements were used to ferry those replacement pilots, but the amount of pilots being moved, was equivalent to making a full deployment. Nevertheless, the operation was almost ready, and the 330 remaining units of the 9th Fleet were preparing to jump into hyperspace.

**EAS Aetos – Sagittarius class cruiser**

**Flagship Ranger Expeditionary Force**

**That same time …**

In normal space, it would have been a sight to behold, but on hyperspace, the ships streaming through it were barely seen by each other. Every Ranger Sagittarius and Oracle except those in the Pythia detachment was moving towards Minbari space. Moving with the Earth Force Naval Intelligence (EFNI) Ranger Fleet was the Oracle class EAS Delphi, the single Earth Intelligence Agency (EIA) jump capable vessel.

Supplementing the mission ships, were a large gathering of tankers specifically designed to perform their resupply operations while in hyperspace. They had latching arms to keep the refueling vessel in tone with the tanker's momentum. The hyperspace storms were not to be taken lightly, and any normal refueling operation would had most likely ended in disaster with just a small hyperspace breeze. The vessels latched to their tanker, and powered down their engines to allow for the tanker to do the entire job.

Dozens of this melding were currently being done, and the last vessels were about to finish their resupply.

Of all the ships, only the Oracles had fuel harvesting shuttles, and they were also the only vessels packed high with spare parts and food. The rest were not there to infiltrate Minbari space, but were still going with all the intention of giving them something to remember.

Soon, the mass of vessels was deep inside the com guidance line created by the eight ships of the Pythia detachment. These warships started to increase the distance from the tankers that were turning around and that would also be waiting for their return in the last active beacon.

Covering the rear of the Ranger Expeditionary Force was a detachment from the 5th Fleet that was acting not only as an escort for the tankers of the expedition, but as additional firepower for the Ranger's attack on Sh'Lekk'Tha. There were 8 Nova class dreadnoughts of the Charlie variant, all equipped with extra interceptors and the Electromagnetic spectrum / Search Track and Lock (EMS/STL) system.

The Sagittarius were quickly joined by the Novas while the Oracles pressed forward. It didn't take much time for the Oracles to lock their navigational systems to the Sh'Lekk'Tha beacon, but it had been an extremely risky com guidance beacon bridge crossing, one that had to be done if the EA was to have any chances against the Minbari in the Sh'Lekk'Tha system.

**Hyperspace - Approaching Vega**

**Drala Fi – Shargoti class War Cruiser**

**Flagship 1st Attack Fleet**

**A few minutes later …**

Shai Alyt Ner'shen stood on the holographic room of the Drala Fi. His expression showed that he was worried. The 1st Attack Fleet was approaching Vega, and he had no idea what the humans had in store for him. In every engagement fought against them, they had used a different strategy, and he had no reason not to believe that they wouldn't try something new.

"Shai Alyt. Our fighters report enemy presence in hyperspace. Several human fighters and automated probes have been destroyed, but we lost a few Nials in the process." informed Aeraan.

"As expected. Keep our stealth systems at maximum, and continue to approach the second planet according to plan."

"Yes, Shai Alyt" answered Aeraan before leaving to carry on his orders.

"Aeraan!"

The Alyt turned back to Ner'shen, and before being able to reply back, Ner'shen spoke again.

"If the humans manage to ambush us, you know what to do. Don't wait for my orders."

Aeraan nodded while saying. "As you command, Shai Alyt."

**Vega star system – Earth Alliance**

**Orbital Command and Control - Underground bunker**

**That same time...**

"Sir, 8th Fleet's scouts are reporting heavy enemy fighter presence in hyperspace, as well as heavy jamming. 8th Fleet Actual, requests interdiction attack. They don't have enough forces in hyperspace to counter them, and the 9th Fleet is still not close enough. Admiral Cotter also says to conserve our strength. Just a single missile per satellite." stated the communications officer.

Vice Admiral Bligh turned to the tactical officer and said. "You heard the orders. Fire one missile per GODS, and activate the gate; wide pattern attack; layered missile activation."

"Yes, Sir." replied the tactical officer.

The Global Orbital Defense Satellites, more commonly known as GODS, fired a single missile each. 72 of the cylinder shaped weapons accelerated away towards the gate. The activation process was calculated to coincide with the missile approach, and the vortex opened as the high speed weapons were closing in. They crossed the boundary into hyperspace, and changed course to their individual blast zones. One was detected and destroyed by the Minbari fighters, only to repay its destruction with immediate activation. Several Nials vanished in that blast. The others reached their preprogrammed activation coordinates and started exploding in a layered pattern. The ones close to the gate first, and the ones closer to the Minbari approach second. The explosions lighted up hyperspace like a Christmas tree.

The missile attack was not very damaging to the Minbari, as only a few fighters were destroyed, but the detection of the missiles scattered the entire Minbari fighter wings, and forced them to momentarily retreat towards their motherships.

**Drala Fi – Shargoti class War Cruiser**

**That same time …**

Shai Alyt Ner'shen had seen the human missile attack, and was smiling. He had used his Nials wisely, and had forced the humans to blast hyperspace to destroy them. Knowing that the missile attack would have also destroyed or scattered any human ships in the area, he had the way clear to make his approach. He didn't had to worry about enemy warships lurking in hyperspace to ambush him, and with the speed of his vessels, there was no chance that the humans could move in before he made the jump into normal space.

His orders were being carried out to the letter. The Nials returned to escort formation, and every unit had ceased to jam hyperspace, but still continued with their stealth systems at maximum. The jamming was canceled so as to not give the humans a way to track them, which was something the Minbari needed for a safe approach.

The Shai Alyt had deliberately shown the humans that his fleet was making a strong approach and had forced them to clear hyperspace for him. He reformed his fleet, and was now making a fast but silent approach to their jump coordinates. Everything was going according to plan, everything but the presence of human ingenuity.

**EAS Laconia – Hyperion class cruiser**

**Flagship 8th Fleet**

**A few minutes later …**

Admiral Margaret Cotter kept a fixed stare at her holographic command console. She had seen the missile barrage followed by Minbari jamming emissions evaporating. She knew the attack had used a small number of missiles, and the sudden loss of Minbari emissions were not because they were destroyed. Her hyperspace scouts had launched more drones toward the core of the system earlier, and she was now watching the jump gate activate for a second time, this time sending through drones instead of missiles.

The Admiral was a veteran of the Dilgar War battle of Balos and Omelos, and as such knew the importance of quick action. She had created a set of special commands to initiate tactical scenarios on her Fleet, and her ships were ready to act on her orders.

Time passed, and while the Minbari weren't expecting to find units in hyperspace, they did find them in the form of drones launched from the jump gate. The dozens of them crossing the path of the approaching Minbari Fleet was more than enough to gather the data Admiral Cotter needed. The Minbari didn't waste time destroying the drones, but the beam weapons and sensor activations were more than enough to tell Cotter that the Minbari Fleet had breached the heliosphere perimeter, and was heading for the core.

For a moment her mind betrayed her. She doubted that it was the entire Minbari Fleet. She thought for a moment that they were only scouts, and that she should wait to show her hand. But the width of space her scouting drones had been cruising in, told her otherwise. If they had been Minbari scouts, most of her drones would have just passed through without detecting anything, but the fact that every single one of them had been engaged, told her that there were many vessels present in the area. So, she gave the order.

Just a single command on her console activated the combat scenario she had programmed before. The entire 8th Fleet was not in a fleet formation, but a total of 512 Hyperion class cruisers distributed individually throughout the entire solar system sphere with the additional strength of the ships of the 7th Fleet. Each of her vessels opened up a jump vortex, and a single missile exited from their frontal launchers and entered hyperspace.

**Drala Fi – Shargoti class War Cruiser**

**That same time …**

Alyt Aeraan was on the bridge when every alarm activated. The massive energies of the incoming jump vortexes were detected, and he knew what was happening. He didn't wait for a command from his Shai Alyt. He gave the order immediately.

"JUMP NOW!"

Every Minbari ship Alyt had been advised of the possibility of interception in hyperspace. They knew that if the jump command was given, they should execute it immediately, and there was no delay on it.

Jump vortexes started opening all along the Minbari Fleet. The first ship to open a vortex had been the Drala Fi, but the rest of the Fleet was just a few seconds behind.

What could have been a total disaster, and with a full fleet destroyed by a perfectly coordinated ambushed, ended up being a programmed jump. It was the first time that the Minbari had been ahead of a human tactic, and while they still lost 17 Tinashis and 1 Sharlin that were transitioning when more than 500 missiles detonated in hyperspace, the losses had been infinitesimal to what could have really happen.

Alyt Aeraan entered the adjacent holographic projection room to report to Ner'shen.

"Shai Alyt, we lost 18 ships."

"That is not a concern right now. The fleet jump had been too wide, we need to reform it. Keep the advance towards the second planet, but have the forward ships slow down so the trailing vessels can catch up."

"Yes, Shai Alyt."

"And give me an estimated time for fleet cohesion."

The Alyt interlinked to the bridge to carry on the orders, and a few seconds later he spoke again. "We estimate half an hour for the fleet to fully reform, and four hours to reach the second planet."

"Hmm. We were forced to jump farther out than I would have wanted. Have the Fleet ready for a strong human attack, and order the 2nd Attack Fleet to move to interdict their forces in hyperspace. Tell them not to enter the core, or they'll probably suffer a similar attack. Have them fight from the outskirts."

"Yes, Shai Alyt." Aeraan bowed to Ner'shen with respects and asked. "Shai Alyt, do you really think the humans will attack us in normal space? Do you believe them to have the strength to defeat a full attack fleet?"

"I don't see why not, and while I don't believe the humans to have the strength to defeat us in a standard battle, they do have the strength to defeat us in unconventional terms. I'm not willing to risk it. Have the Fleet prepared, and send the orders to the 2nd attack fleet."

Aeraan bowed and left to carry out his orders.

**EAS Akagi – Avenger class carrier**

**Flagship 9th Fleet**

**A few minutes later …**

The ship was shaking along with every other ship in the 9th Fleet. Every vessel had their engines throttled high, but that was not the reason for the strong vibrations. They were all moving inside the heliosphere perimeter in hyperspace and the shock-waves of the previous missile release were being felt strongly. The worse was over, but hyperspace was still very turbulent.

"Admiral Cotter is requesting our E.T.A." said Agnar.

"Tell her we'll be there in a few minutes, and ask her to link the ships near where the Minbari jumped to this fleet. I need to know where we are going to open our jump vortexes." answered von Koester.

A few seconds passed before the answer came. "I have telemetry, Sir. Three ships are on different vectors off the Minbari Fleet, but two are maintaining total electronic silence because they are in open space."

"What about the third? They should all be in open space with no cover. Tell them to deploy drones, and link through them. I need those jump coordinates."

"The third is active on coms, Sir. We can receive data through it."

"Okay, patch it through."

"Yes, Sir. I have Captain John Sheridan from the EAS Lexington."

Captain Sheridan had just been given command of the Lexington. The transfer of the ship from the Dakota cluster had seen the vessel passing close to the Sol and Proxima clusters where its previous Captain, Roger Sterns, had been transferred to command a new Nova III. He received a field promotion to Captain and the command of the Hyperion class cruiser.

"Captain Sheridan, are you receiving?" asked von Koester.

"Yes, Admiral, loud and clear!"

"Good, son. Do you have a clear view of the Minbari?"

"Negative, Sir. But we know where they jumped. I have three drones with interferometric sensors following their movements and their sensor emissions, but we are only able to pick up shadows in front of stars. The drones' passive sensors are small, and I have the Lexington inside an asteroid field. I can't move out as the Minbari are active on sensors."

"Inside an asteroid field? I didn't know there was an asteroid field in that area."

"There isn't, Sir. We had a close call when one of the Minbari scouting forces jumped in system a few days ago. They were a few Giga meters away, and could have picked us up if they had been scanning in this direction. There was a lone big enough asteroid nearby, and I decide to give the gunnery officer some target practice, Sir. We broke the Asteroid apart, and grappled some of the bigger pieces with Starfuries. We positioned the Lexington in the middle for cover. We are currently behind the biggest piece in relation to the Minbari Fleet."

Admiral von Koester chuckled loudly. "Nicely done, Son. Can you provide us with their position, heading and speed?"

"No, Sir, just a general vector. I've already dispatched 6 Starfuries to increase our interferometry capabilities. We should be able to provide the information you request in a few minutes, Sir."

"We don't have a few minutes, son. We are almost in position."

"Admiral, the Starfuries I sent are only coasting. They can't activate their engines, or they'll be picked up by the Minbari sensors. Their inertia should give us enough width to be able to give accurate data in less than two minutes. The enemy is too far out, but I still wouldn't want to risk it, sir."

"Two minutes is OK, son. We'll be listening, Akagi out."

Kofoed cut the communications link to the Lexington before the admiral spoke again. "Link me to Bligh."

"Yes, Admiral." answered Agnar, while linking the Akagi's com system to the Global Orbital Defense underground bunker on Vega. "Link active."

"Vice Admiral, Full release authorized. I'm sending the coordinates of the attack. We are almost in position, I need the missiles ready. Launch immediately." ordered von Koester.

A few seconds passed before Vice Admiral Bligh answered. "Authentication codes received and confirmed, Admiral. Full missile release on its way. Jump gate activation commencing."

Von Koester and Blight kept in contact for a few more seconds, but in the meantime, the 72 GODS II started releasing a total of 199 missiles each. 14,328 missiles were launched in under a minute, and went through the gate with their engines on cruise.

Von Koester had ended communications with Bligh and was now speaking with Admiral Cotter. "The 9th is reducing speed and preparing for the attack. The missiles are coming up behind us, and our Sagittarius have fallen back and are ready for a full missile release. Captain Sheridan of the Lexington has provided enough information for a successful attack. I wouldn't waste time, Margaret. You should all be jumping now."

"Sending the jump signal, I'll be joining your ranks soon, Otto."

The six Starfuries launched by the Lexington had created a big enough circle to gather detailed passive sensor data and were sending telemetry back to their ship for it to link it to the fleet.

In hyperspace, every missile launched by the GODS IIs was closing in on the position of the 9th Fleet and soon reached the Sagittarius. At that time, the missile cruisers started ripple firing all of their missiles towards the Avengers and Hyperions of the 9th.

A multitude of jump vortexes opened up all around and inside the heliosphere boundary in hyperspace. The hundreds of Hyperions of the 8th and 7th Fleets made the transition, and started heading towards the units of the 9th Fleet.

Hyperspace went dark red again after the closure of so many vortexes, only to get lighted up again by another set of vortexes, this time from the 9th Fleet Avengers and Hyperions. The missiles cruising to their position set their engines to flank and started crossing into normal space through the opened vortexes. The Hyperions of the 9th started firing their missiles from their frontal tubes, which soon joined the others in the crossing.

**Drala Fi – Shargoti class War Cruiser**

**That same time …**

The holographic projection room lighted up in a blue glaze. Dozens of jump vortexes had opened up in front of the 1st Attack Fleet, and the thousands of missiles launched by the GODS, Sagittarius, and Hyperions poured out of them at flank speed.

"I think that any doubts you had about humans attacking us in normal space are gone?"

"Yes, Shai Alyt." replied Aeraan. His face showed awe at the amount of missiles approaching the Fleet.

"It's good to know that you'll be giving the necessary respect this opponent deserves. But let's not waste time. We have a lot of guns, but there are a lot of human missiles on approach, and they manage to launch them relatively close, Fire!"

The human weapons started their erratic approach to target to fool the targeting sensors of the Minbari vessels, but tachyon sensors were extremely fast and adding the fast and accurate weapons they possessed, there was little for an erratic approach at those ranges to help in reducing losses. Space went green when the Minbari warships opened fire, and thousands of missiles disappeared in the blink of an eye.

For the Minbari, the human missiles represented the main attack. Their entire fleet was facing the deadly menace with every frontal gun, but for the humans, it was just a way of making their enemy to position their pieces in the way humanity wanted.

**EAS Akagi – Avenger class carrier**

**Flagship 9th Fleet**

**A few seconds later …**

"Every missile has gone through, Sir. Jump vortexes are closing, but we are losing missiles very fast." stated Agnar.

"Tell the Sagittarius to move at once. I need the Starfuries to attack at the same time Cotter launches her missiles."

"Yes, Sir."

The Sagittarius class cruisers that had previously launched their missiles from behind the 9th Fleet were accelerating to position themselves ahead of the Avengers and Hyperions to allow their Starfuries to use their charged jump engines. The human fighters had not joined the first missiles barrage, as those missiles were not only used as a diversion, but as a mean of receiving combat data for precise combat jumps.

Human forces in Vega now knew exactly where the Minbari ships were, and every capital ship was coordinating to open their jump vortexes where the enemy would feel it worse.

The Minbari Fleet had almost reformed itself in a wall formation, and every able gun was pointing and firing towards and against the first missile attack, when to the surprise of its commanders, normal space went blue with hundreds of jump vortexes.

Humans had tried to open vortexes on top of the Minbari ships, but normal space being so large, and the Minbari ships being very well spaced out, only 2 Tinashis suffered the fate of facing an opening vortex in the position they were cruising by. The ships ceased to exist in a flash, but even if that strategy had completely failed for humanity, it had allowed them to have vortexes opened near every single ship of the Minbari Fleet. Almost 6,000 missiles, launched by the Hyperions of the 8th and 7th Fleets, crossed into normal space to strike at the bluish vessels.

The Minbari point defense cannons repositioned to engage the approaching volley. Beams slashed at the relatively few missiles, but there were still almost 10 missiles per Minbari ship in the area, and if that wasn't enough, 3,200 Starfuries from the Hyperions of the 8th and 7th Fleets, and 4,914 from the 9th Fleet Avengers and Hyperions made it through to join the fray.

The Minbari Nial class fighters immediately went to intercept the human Nova class Starfuries. The advanced Minbari spacecraft was hundreds of years more advanced to the human x winged craft. Their sensor and weapon system could intercept any fighter from extreme ranges, even farther away than the human anti-fighter missiles were able to, but there was one thing in which the human fighter was unbeatable, and that was in agility. Its engines were mounted in the tip of it wings and that allowed for a huge leverage in any turning. If a Starfury was able to cross the distance to a Minbari fighter, then the battle was effectively over.

The Minbari also had the advantage of a stealth system that allowed it to fight in close quarters without worry of intercept. It was in every aspect a formidable fighter, and would have decimated any human attempt at engaging it if it weren't for two factors: One, the jump points had open inside the Minbari Fleet formation, and in consequence, the range of engagement favored the human Starfuries, and Two, every Nova class fighter was equipped with the EMS/STL system, and that made the Minbari stealth system effectively irrelevant.

In addition, the human Starfuries outnumbered the Minbari Nials more than 10 to 1. The Minbari fighters engaged with massive confidence in their technology and ability, but losses to the Minbari Fighter command went almost to 100 percent in the first few seconds of battle. The humans just saturated space with anti-fighter missiles and plasma pulses, and swarmed every Minbari squadron with ease.

The Minbari targeting computers were struggling to process so many targets, and their processing power was overwhelmed even further when the Starfuries started releasing their missiles.

A Tinashi burst open by the impact of 12 fighter launched anti-capital-ship missiles. The frigate's starboard side was a wreck, but soon the entire ship blew up when several other missiles arrived and detonated inside its structure.

While the same was being repeated all over the Minbari Fleet, the return fire was so powerful that human missiles and fighters were being lost at an alarming rate. The humans had achieved complete space superiority against the Minbari Nials, but against capital ship point defenses, the situation was completely reversed. The number of missiles and fighters deployed were definitely not enough to defeat a Full Minbari Attack Fleet, but they weren't the only card played by the Earth Alliance.

The Minbari knew that this attack was not everything the humans had to offer, as they hadn't seen a single ship, but they were still heavily engaged by the human forces already among them.

A Sharlin blew up at the same time as more than 20 Tinashis close to it followed its fate, but in the distance, more flashes indicated that Minbari forces were engaged everywhere.

The massive amount of missile impacts and the huge amount of quantum singularity reactors exploding when the ships lost containment, showed to every one present that the Minbari Fleet was in trouble, but for the humans in normal space, things were getting complicated, and after less than a minute of heavy fighting, almost 70 percent of the missiles were lost, and only 65 percent of the Starfuries remained, all with highly depleted anti-capital-ship missiles stores.

Losses for the Minbari had reached 234 Tinashis and 21 Sharlins, and even though it seemed that they had gone through the worst, the worse was about to happen.

The Hyperion's reactor strength allowed them to charge their jump engines relatively fast, and they were soon ready to attack in force. The Minbari line had been broken in several places, but there were others in which humans fighters and missiles had almost been wiped out. It was in those locations where Admiral Cotter, and von Koester were about to increase the pressure considerably.

The 122 Artemis and 104 Olympus of the 9th Fleet paired themselves with any of the 659 Hyperions available. Then the Hyperions opened up their vortexes, with the Artemis and Olympus going through them first, but closely followed by the cruisers.

The human forces timed their transition at the same moment as the Minbari point defenses were heavily engaged with the last remaining missiles and the harassing Starfuries. The Olympus were not yet out of their vortexes when their missiles were salvo fired. The Artemis joined in with rail-gun alpha strikes, but it was the huge plasma release from the Hyperions which prophesied doom for the Minbari. Hundreds of Minbari vessels were struck in some way. A few just got their armors tested with a few plasma hits, but some were completely obliterated by concentrated fire from human ships, and many missiles were still coming their way.

The Minbari lines broke formation in order to face the new arrivals at the same time as the constant plasma pulses from the human cruisers made their way towards them. Their anti-capital-ship beam weapons had not been used and soon demonstrated why they were so feared by any opposing force. Green beams started lashing out towards the EA ships, and soon, human capital ship loses started to mount, but with the ships positioned as they were, and the Minbari forces so heavily engaged, there was only a single possible outcome for the battle, and that was a human victory.

**EAS Akagi – Avenger class carrier**

**Flagship 9th Fleet**

**A few seconds later …**

Agnar was reciting the battle events to the Admiral. "Sir, Starfuries have expended every missile and are now heavily engaged trying to pick off point defense cannons from the Minbari Warships. Loses from point defenses are mounting. The last enemy fighters have been destroyed by capital ship interceptors. Admiral Cotter has ordered every remaining unengaged Starfury to rejoin the fleet in the event they need to retreat. Every other fighter has been advised to follow course as soon as they become unengaged."

"How is the mining proceeding?" asked von Koester.

"Every Sagittarius and Avenger is spread out deploying them. The Minbari will not be retreating safely, unless they do it now while we are still inside the field." answered Agnar.

"Good. Speed up the process. I want every ship out of here before they decide our forces have given them enough of a beating."

"Yes, S..." Agnar was about to reply, before the ship shook violently. He checked the battle net, and knew what was happening, but the Admiral was already ahead of him.

"Every ship move away from the system as fast as possible, and deploy every available mine in the process. It doesn't matter if it's not in the field. Drop them and run." He switched channels to the 8th Fleet Flagship and spoke again. "Margaret, we are being engaged by Minbari vessels on hyperspace, I have ordered an immediate retreat, and the release of every available mine. I'm transferring detonation codes to you. Be aware that you'll probably have incoming."

The commotion on the bridge of the Laconia could be heard loudly. It was clear that the vessel was in heavy combat. "Copy that Akagi. The Admiral is busy at the moment but has acknowledged your message. We are pressing the attack on local forces, and are preparing to retreat in case of new arrivals. Laconia out."

Jamming in hyperspace was strong, but that didn't stop the Minbari 2nd Attack Fleet from firing desperately from long range, and they had already been able to destroy a Sagittarius on the outer perimeter. The blast of the explosion was still rocking the Akagi.

Every human carrier and missile cruiser had activated their engines, and they were moving at maximum power on every possible direction. Minbari beams from more than two hundred ships were piercing the red blur of hyperspace, and before the fleeing human forces reached safety distance, an Avenger and another Sagittarius were destroyed.

**Minbari 2nd Attack Fleet …**

The Alyt in command of the reserve forces was trying to keep calm, but hyperspace fighting sent shivers into his spine. The Sharlin he was commanding shook from the explosion of the last destroyed human ship. The waves of hyperspace energies washing over its superstructure made the huge warship feel like an atmospheric shuttle flying through a storm.

"Alyt!" said his second in command.

"Report!"

"Our vanguard has detected a mine field in the area of space covering the 1st Attack Fleet. We can't go in, and they can't go out." replied the second in command.

The Alyt took a deep breath before replying back. "The 1st Attack Fleet can't go out, but we will go in. We need to save the day. Start sending detachments one at a time. We'll either reinforce the 1st Attack Fleet, or we'll force the humans to detonate their mine field in order to stop us, either way, we'll be doing our part. Order the vanguard to proceed forward and jump as soon as they reach optimal position, and have the rest of the detachments follow them.

**EAS Laconia – Hyperion class cruiser**

**Flagship 8th Fleet**

**That same time …**

In normal space, the Minbari 1st Attack Fleet was heavily engaged by the human entire 8th Fleet and 373 vessels from the 7th and 9th Fleets. Thousands of human plasma pulses were flying towards the Minbari vessels and the damage that had accumulated on them was extreme. Human ships had concentrated fire on individual Minbari units to overwhelm them, and an extra 74 of their vessels had been destroyed, even the Drala'Fi's heavy armor was scarred by the human plasma bolts. On the other side, any beam fired towards the human lines almost guaranteed a kill. There were very few EA ships damaged, but ships destroyed were already numbering 109.

A few heavy missiles were still approaching the Minbari lines, but there were several hundreds of the smaller Olympus and Starfury launched missiles still in play, and it was thank to them that losses were relatively low, as the Minbari firepower was being concentrated on them.

The Hyperion class cruisers were giving hell, but Admiral Cotter knew that if the damage being done didn't translate into destroyed vessels soon, then the entire attention of the Minbari weapons would be centered on her forces, and the time needed by the Minbari to waste her fleet would be counted in seconds. There were also more Minbari vessels approaching on hyperspace, and the lack of intelligence regarding their numbers made the situation tense to say the least.

As she thought of this, the Laconia's sensor officer shouted at the same time as the battle net was filtering the information on her 3D display. 9 jump points opened more than 4 light seconds away. The distance the emission had to travel meant that the Minbari were probably already in system, even though the sensors were just detecting the openings. A few seconds later, several human ships were struck by neutron and fusion beams fired in a slashing pattern.

The less damaging slashing attacks still heavily damaged the struck vessels, while some of them were cleanly cut in half.

Having 9 Minbari ships firing in a position where her forces were unable to answer was everything the Admiral needed to know about her chances. The battle as it was being fought was effectively over.

"Detonate all mines immediately and order all ships to jump 20 seconds after detonation. It'll be rough, but we need to get the hell out of here." ordered Admiral Cotter.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Order all non-jump capable ships and fighters to rendezvous with the jump capable ones. We wait for no one! Is that clear!" barked the Admiral.

"Clear, Ma'am! Mines have detonated! Initiating count down!"

The human ships started getting into jump position, but their guns never ceased to fire. Minbari vessels that were already crippled were overwhelmed by the still ferocious assault, but human units were exploding even faster. The thousands of blue plasma pulses dwarfed the green beams in number and intensity, but every beam fired ended in a ship destroyed, while many pulses streamed through the distance leaving contrails of plasma when their containment fields dissipated when exceeding their designed maximum range.

**Minbari 2nd Attack Fleet …**

"Minefield detonation detected!"

"Pull our forces back! Immediately!" ordered the Alyt in command of the reserves.

"We are too close, we should jump!" countered his second in command.

"Then do it!"

The sensor officer barked from his station, "We already lost contact with two detachments, and our sensors detect heavy distortions consistent with shock-waves!"

The 2nd Attack Fleet had been moving ships forward in detachments to slowly bypass the minefield. It was thought that the humans would not detonate it on a few targets and that they would most likely wait for the entire fleet to be in range, but the opposite was happening, and now, every ship in range of the blast zone had been ordered to jump to normal space. The rest of the ships had been ordered to pull back to then turn around and attack in force without any fear of mines.

The shock-wave engulfed and disintegrated every unit on front, while the last in range of the hyperspace tsunami opened up their jump points to try and avoid it. One of those vessels was the Flagship of the 2nd Attack Fleet. The ship and its escorts started entering normal space, when the shock-wave reached them. Their jump engines struggled to keep the vortex opened. Massive amounts of energy from their extremely powerful Quantum gravimetric reactors channeled through the jump projectors to compensate, but it wasn't nearly enough, and the jump points disintegrated along with the crossing ships. 9 more Minbari vessels were destroyed.

**Drala Fi – Shargoti class War Cruiser**

Shai Alyt Ner'shen's view of the battle from the holographic projection room was unique and terrifying. The brawl that had become the battle was chaotic. His ships were completely out of formation and fighting as individual units. The firepower thrown at them was such that any attempt from him to reorganize the Fleet was futile. The humans had attempted to wipe his Fleet out in hyperspace, and almost succeeded, but it seemed that that was not everything under their sleeves, as the assault he was witnessing, was not only out of proportions, but extremely well executed.

His Fleet had received considerable losses, and while the human vessels were now being destroyed faster than they could, they still had enough vessels to defeat his forces, but the thing that really worried him was the status of the ships he still had in operation. There was probably not a single vessel that hadn't been impacted in some way. He knew that even if he survived this engagement, he would probably or most likely had to send almost the entire fleet back to Minbari space for repairs, and that would heavily influence the invasion timetable. Whatever the outcome, the humans had stopped the Minbari advance on its track. They were definitely not going to be able to project power beyond the Vega cluster for at least a few months.

"Shai Alyt!" barked the sensor officer. "All human fighters are disengaging, and the small capital ships are forming up with the heavier vessels."

"They are retreating." replied Ner'shen in a small voice.

Aeraan looked at his Shai Alyt in confusion. "If they stay a little longer, we'll be unable to mount any serious opposition. Why are they leaving?"

Ner'shen pointed to a point in the battlefield where green beams were crossing in the opposite direction. "Enemy Jamming may impede communications, but I'm sure that is the 2nd Attack Fleet. At the range they are firing, the humans cannot respond. They fought well. Their attack was perfectly executed, but their commanding officer timing to order the retreat is even more perfect. I can say that the average Alyt would have stayed to fight, and in so doing would have lost its fleet."

The entire battle field ignited in the yellow of so many jump vortexes. Minbari ships were still firing into the approaching missiles, but those guns that were available were still targeting human ships. There were many Hyperion cruisers destroyed forcing the collapse of some of the opening vortexes. Some were lone vessels; others had a few of the non-jump-capable ships and fighters nearby effectively stranding them in normal space. The human fleet retreated, and the Minbari vessels retaliated with force against the few stragglers. None of them survived. For the humans, some pay back was gain when a few of the remaining missiles immolated several Minbari ships in fusion detonations.

A few seconds later, and with the last human missile destroyed, the massive fleet battle in normal space was effectively over. A few more human ships were hunted down and destroyed in hyperspace by the 2nd Attack Fleet, but the fusion mines released by the retreating human vessels soon forced the Minbari forces to think twice before continuing their assault.

**EAS Laconia – Hyperion class cruiser**

**Flagship 8th Fleet**

**A few minutes later...**

"Keep dropping mines and have some of them detonated in random patterns. Let's try to keep those Minbari ships out of our back." ordered Admiral Cotter.

"Yes, Ma'am." answered the EFNI tactical officer.

The Admiral turned to the helms officer, and spoke at the same time to his EFNI assistant. "Set a course to the deep space supply depots, and tell Admiral von Koster to do the same."

"Admiral, those depots are very close to the Vega star system. The Minbari may follow us into normal space. Shouldn't we continue to Signet?"

"Only if they detect our openings at close range. There are no beacons there. We are triangulating the depot positions with other Vega cluster beacons. If we are able to deter any vessel from following us, we shouldn't have a problem, and we need to rearm in case we are ordered to attack again. The Vega colony now stands alone, and even though we gave the Minbari a thrashing, they still have enough strength to beat the defense grid and this fleet combined. If Earth Force doesn't commit more forces to engage the Minbari, we'll most likely lose the colony."

The EFNI operative just nodded to his Admiral and then released the order to the rest of the fast reforming Fleet.

The battle had been one of massive proportions, and while the vessels involved where not even a fifth of the vessels that fought at the Battle of Balos during the Dilgar war, the Exa-Joules of firepower thrown by both forces in the few minutes that it lasted were considerably more than what was released at Balos, with that being mostly due to the extreme power output of Minbari weapons and the amount of fusion tipped missiles released by humanity.

Losses should have been total for both forces, but the Earth Alliance survived thanks to the Minbari concentrating fire on the incoming missiles, and the Minbari thanks to the arrival of units of the 2nd Attack Fleet.

The major fleet engagement of the day was over. Both forces had had enough action for a day, maybe even for a month, but the reality of warfare dictated other terms, and those were saying that it was not over.

**Drala Fi – Shargoti class War Cruiser**

**40 minutes after the Human retreat...**

The 1st and 2nd Attack Fleets had joined forces and were now under the command of the Drala Fi. The Minbari had been mauled. Losses had been very heavy. A total of 40 Sharlins and 395 Tinashis had been lost. The amount of vessels damaged exceeded 50 percent of the 519 remaining, and that was mostly because nearly half of them were from the 2nd Attack Fleet. On the good side, Shai Alyt Ner'shen had reformed the fleet into a wall formation facing the second planet. They were not moving, as many shuttles were performing search and rescue operation on ships that had been destroyed, but that were sufficiently in one piece to suggest that there could still be survivors.

"Aeraan!"

"Yes, Shai Alyt!"

"Prepare the Fleet to attack the human colony."

Aeraan bowed before answering. "Shai Alyt, we have many ships damaged and rescue operations on destroyed vessels are still ongoing. Shouldn't we wait until we have secured the crew of those units?"

"As long as the defenses of that colony remain intact, it will not only give the humans a stronghold in the system, but also a reason to continue their attacks. We need to destroy their defenses and secure orbit to discourage an assault. Once we destroy their defense grid, we'll spread our forces so that the humans cannot concentrate their attacks. Any attempt of retaking the planet will fail if our ships are sufficiently spread-out to provide long range fire support. They won't be able to attack every ship, and those out of range of their weapons will annihilate any human attempt to recapture their colony. We move now. Leave a few damaged vessels to continue the rescue operation, but the rest will follow the Drala Fi. We can't risk waiting any longer."

Aeraan bowed again and replied. "Yes, Shai Alyt..." he paused for a moment before continuing. "The human defense grid is powerful, and many of our vessels are in no shape for another battle. Shouldn't we leave the most damaged behind?"

Ner'shen turned to look at Aeraan with piercing eyes. "I gave an order Aeraan. Every combat able vessel is to follow the Drala Fi."

"Yes, Shai Alyt. Forgive me."

Ner'shen sighed. "There is no need for forgiveness. You are clearly worried after what we have been through, but every beam weapon is still a weapon that can make a difference. The human defense satellites are a concern, but our numbers are far superior to them. We'll probably receive losses, but we need to launch a concentrated attack on their defense grid before they can call on the support of their fleet. Proceed with my orders."

"Yes, Shai Alyt."

While the ships that had their gravitic drives shattered remained in the battlefield to continue rescue operations, the rest of the fleet started accelerating towards the human second planet in the Minbari standard wall formation.

**Vega IIA**

**Orbital Command and Control - Underground bunker**

**That same time ...**

"They are moving, Sir." stated the sensor officer redundantly, as Vice Admiral Roger Bligh could see that clearly on the main screen.

"Are our GODS sensors picking them up?" asked Bligh in return.

"No, Sir. The Planet is still in between. We are tracking them with the satellites deployed by the Lexington. Our outer sensors will move out of the Planet's shadow in about 20 minutes. The GODS should pick them up a few moments later than that."

Bligh just nodded and then turned to the tactical officer. "Spread the defense grid out, set jammers at maximum power, deploy decoys, and empty Vega station of its Starfuries. Send them behind the colony, and order the last remaining crew in the station to abandon it."

The tactical officer replied immediately. "Vega Station has ordered evacuation of last remaining personnel and has activated its detonation charges in case they are needed. Jammers are active and at maximum power, the active sensor decoy satellites are on-line, Starfuries have been ordered to launch, and the defense grid is spreading out. How much distance should there be between each one, Sir?"

"Maximum, keep their thrusters active and the GODS moving away."

"Sir? We won't be able to concentrate fire with our plasma cannons."

"I doubt the Minbari will close to our GODS secondary weapons range. This will be a long ranged fight. If we concentrate our defenses, they will be wiped out very fast. We'll try active locks with our decoy satellites, and fire our GODS with their EMS/STL passive tracking; they'll be firing against our decoys. By the time they find out, I hope our GODS had been given the chance to fire several times."

"Yes, Sir."

The 72 GODS II started spreading away. Their thrusters were set at maximum, but they were not capital ship rated engines and in consequence were moving really slow. Vice Admiral Bligh had concentrated them in orbit to have better firepower against individual Minbari ships, or small group of vessels, but against a full fleet, he needed to spread them out to reduce their vulnerability.

On Earth, the thousands of GODS I were concentrated in orbit to allow their short ranged weapons the ability to hit incoming warships with a wall of plasma, while relying on missiles for long ranged punch, but the Dilgar War showed that the long ranged defensive ability of the Abbai and Hyach defense grids were the only thing truly effective at planetary space denial. The GODS II was designed precisely with this concept in mind, and while they had strong secondary weapons in the form of Nova class dreadnought plasma turrets, their real strength were their main particle cannons. The close to two thousand GODS II protecting Earth were spread all over, its farthest layer going outwards for up to two light seconds from the planet, giving the two farthest satellites a distance of 4 light seconds between each other, barely enough to effectively cover themselves, but at the same time covering a huge volume of space. Anything jumping at a range of 6 light seconds from Earth would jump inside the effective range of an extremely strong defense grid, forcing any invasion or assault fleet to deploy far away of population centers if they wanted a chance to live more than a few seconds.

Vega IIA was a completely different scenario. The numbers of satellites deployed were just 72, and while they were still able to effectively engage targets at 4 light seconds from the planet, and far farther away with reduced effectiveness, the numbers deployed were just not enough to handle what was coming their way.

The minutes passed, and soon the outermost sensors picked the Minbari Warships through interferometry. The GODS II sensors were able to do the same a few seconds later. Without the vector provided by the sensors deployed by the Lexington, it would have taken far more time to pick them up. The Minbari were still too far away to try to engage, but at least Bligh knew where they were, and had planned accordingly.

The Vice Admiral turned to the tactical officer and asked. "How are they approaching?"

"They have a fixed heading and acceleration, Sir."

The Vice Admiral smiled lightly and then nodded "I want the GODS to be able to fire when the Minbari are exactly 4 light seconds away. That distance is the location where our weapons are effective enough to make an impact with the approach the Minbari are having. Calculate the speed and acceleration of Minbari ships and the recharge rate of our satellites and program them to fire beyond those 4 light seconds, but I want every single one of them charged and ready to fire when the Minbari reach that distance. Let the battle-net dictate how many GODS to be used beyond the 4 light seconds, but at that distance, I want one sat per target."

The tactical officer and other operators started calculating the distance where the 72 GODS could fire on a single vessel with some chance to hit, but also calculated the recharge rate of the defensive satellites to have them ready to fire with effect at the 4 light seconds specified by the Vice Admiral.

The Minbari had very advanced ships, and their top speed was approximately 20 percent that of light. It took time for their gravitic drives to reach that speed and it was mostly used on long hyperspace routes or long interplanetary travel, and while they started their approach far away from the Human colony, they needed to enter orbit and in consequence were making a slower approach. It took some time, but finally the Vega colony defense grid opened fire.

The decoy satellites activated their sensors at full power at the same time as 72 GODS II opened fired on a slashing pattern against a single Minbari vessel. The jamming done by the humans was very high, and helped in masking the beam emissions and the decoy satellites active sensors. A Minbari Sharlin was destroyed at the same time the Minbari fleet responded with intensity. No GODS were struck. The distance was too high, jamming too strong and the Minbari fire was concentrated against the small decoy satellites. Just a few of the hundreds deployed were destroyed.

Seeing no response from the humans, and having no contacts, the Minbari momentarily stopped firing. The jammers being used by the EA were based on recovered Dilgar tech. They were similar to the systems used against besieged worlds. These systems had demonstrated to be effective against the advanced Hyach and Abbai sensors. The jammers operated by emitting massive bursts of electromagnetic and tachyon emissions, and were successful because they worked in huge numbers. The small satellites charged their capacitors and unleashed their contained energies with a wide area jamming effect to then spend several seconds or even minutes recharging their capacitor banks for another burst. The area around the Vega colony had sufficient jammers to keep a constant and variable emissions pattern from several dozen of them.

The EA was also using several of these jammers as active sensor decoys by using them in a constant mode instead than in bursts, and while with this mode they could remain active permanently, the emissions generated were barely able to compare to a capital ship grade sensor system. In any case, while the EA was trying to deceive the Minbari into thinking that the active sensor decoys were the actual satellites; their GODS were operating exclusively with the EMS/STL system. Just with the jammers, the EA had been able to block any attempt by the Minbari to get a lock or even just detect one of the human heavy particle cannons, so the active sensors were just a secondary bonus.

Thirty seconds passed before the human defense grid was able to fire again. Many jammers released their disruptive bursts at the same time as the active sensor decoys activated and the GODS II fired. The bright orange beams smashed another Sharlin to pieces. Again, the Minbari responded with extreme power but little effect. Not a single human satellite was destroyed, but this time, the bluish vessels kept firing trying to hit something with a lucky shot. The combination of space being so huge, their sensors so heavily jammed, and their passive systems unable to perform interferometry with the required precision for weapons fire at those distances, meant that only a few jammers were struck before the GODS II were able to fire again.

**Drala Fi – Shargoti class War Cruiser**

**That same time…**

Shai Alyt Ner'shen was watching with concealed awe, the impressive firepower of his fleet. Thousands of beams were slashing towards the planet that was barely visible at this distance, with its small moon not visible at all.

The Humans had destroyed two Sharlins, and he had order all vessels to fire in the immediate area close to the moon. He could clearly see space in front of him, but the fleet's sensors were extremely jammed. He just didn't know if he was causing any damage at all.

"Have we made any progress in beating their jamming?"

Aeraan turned towards his Shai Alyt. "They are releasing an impressive amount of Tachyon emissions, and we are unable to isolate our return signals. I'm afraid we'll need to get far closer before we are able to …"

Another set of bright orange beams struck two Sharlins in front of and to the starboard side of the Drala Fi. The two ships exploded with the frightening beauty of uncontained singularities.

"Two more ships, Shai Alyt. We need to break formation!" stated an altered Aeraan.

"We'll do better than that. Order one battle group to accelerate at maximum thrust. Tell them to just overshoot the planet while clearing the way for us. The rest of the Fleet is to break formation in detachments, while making the approach with altered heading and speed. Match the distance to that moon in light seconds, and alter our heading at the same intervals."

"Alter our heading at the same intervals? I'm sorry Shai Alyt. I do not understand."

"It's most likely that the humans are targeting us through visual triangulation. They need our visual emissions to do that, and those travel at the speed of light. I want our ships to change course every time our emissions reach them, if it takes ten seconds for that to happen, then change course every ten seconds."

Aeraan bowed. "Yes, Shai Alyt."

**Vega IIA**

**Orbital Command and Control - Underground bunker**

**That same time...**

Bligh was watching the main screen, while a few technicians worked on the unfinished holographic display in front of him. He spoke before the tactical officer had any chance of doing so. "They reacted slower that I would have thought of an advanced race. Make the detaching ships our primary targets."

"Yes Sir!"

The main screen showed a group of Minbari ships accelerating at a rate a human vessel could only dream of. Behind them, the main force of enemy vessels was maintaining their speed but altering their heading every few seconds.

The forward 81 Minbari units were composed exclusively of Tinashi class frigates detached from the main fleet to form the battle group. They were moving and accelerating fast, but were only decreasing the range towards the best firing solutions of the Human defense grid. Another set of 72 orange beams and the now trademark burst of human jamming emissions emanated from Vega IIA's surrounding space. Two Tinashis were slashed to pieces.

"Recharging! No impacts on the defense grid. Enemy fire is concentrated close to the planet and is missing our GODS by a wide margin. Battle parameters are readjusting. We'll be able to engage three targets on our next volley." stated the tactical officer.

Bligh just nodded. He looked at the Starfuries on the other side of the moon and said, "Order all Starfuries to fire their missiles on the vectored path of the Minbari's forward units approach. Take command guidance of those missiles from here. Shut them down when they reach position, then order every fighter to land. We'll not be using them. They'll be slaughter if we do."

"Yes Sir!"

Four missiles were released from each fighter. They followed a parabolic path through the upper lunar orbit to then gain escape velocity and straighten on the Minbari approach. After firing, the fighters started to slowly descend towards the main colony compound.

The Minbari forward deployed ships continued to accelerate and their accumulated speed was closing the distance to the human colony very fast.

"Firing!" shouted the tactical officer with a strong voice.

Three Tinashi class frigates were slashed by 24 particle beams each. One ship broke up, while two exploded with the extreme energy release of their quantum singularities.

Bligh was watching one of the explosions on one of the multiple screens of the command and control center. He said with a low voice "I have to say that the Minbari ships are extremely advanced, but those reactors, while powerful, have a serious design flaw."

The Tactical Officer just nodded, but kept staring at his console for a few seconds before saying "They got very close this time Sir!"

"How close?"

"One missed by just a few clicks, but there were fifteen other GODS that were also threatened."

"Stop firing. Increase jamming, and prepare to fire every defense satellite on single units once they reach 4 seconds out." Bligh paused for a second before saying, "Wait! What does the battle parameters specify for one sat per target at their current speed?"

The Tactical Officer responded a few moments later. "3.89 light seconds out Sir."

"Mark that distance on our firing solutions, but be ready to fire on single targets if the enemy attacks again and manages to hit one of our satellites."

"Yes Sir!"

The time that followed was a nerve wracking experience. The tension in the command center was high. The Minbari kept their approach towards the 3.89 light seconds' line marked for the human orbital defense grid firing solutions. As the enemy vessels approached, the intensity of their scans began to be felt, and Vice Admiral Blight ordered an increase in jamming.

The success so far was due to the cycling of human jamming satellites that allowed a constant jamming operation. As more satellites started to be used to compensate for the increased strength of Minbari sensor's emissions, there was less and less energy available in the satellites to keep the constant jamming active. The Vice Admiral knew this, and he ordered the programing of jamming operations to send the last strong burst at the same time the Minbari reached the firing line. After that, jamming would decrease considerably before the satellites recharged to operate at normal levels again. Blight just hope the majority of the forward deployed Minbari vessels would be out of action before the second group of Minbari units crossed the distance to make a difference.

The Minbari battle group reached the human predetermined firing solutions as the energy drain on the jamming satellites was reaching critical condition. A last burst of jamming emissions joined a total of 72 beams firing on a straight line. The human Global Orbital Defense Satellites sent a message of what was about to come if the Minbari pressed any further on Earth Alliance space. 19 Satellites missed their targets or barely scratched them, but 53 orange beams impacted head-on into the approaching Minbari units.

The Minbari battle group was decimated, but the now highly reduced jamming environment allowed the remaining 23 Tinashis to lock-on the human defense grid.

The shouts of victory on the Vega IIA underground bunker were silenced by the Minbari return fire. Neutron and Fusion beams impacted on the huge human satellites. Their armor was strong, but the shear strength of Minbari weapons made that irrelevant, and one after the other they started to be destroyed. A few seconds later, a massive burst of green beams, coming from the rest of the Minbari Fleet, finished the last remaining satellites.

The emptied Orion class Vega Space Station suffered the same fate a few seconds later. The ring shaped station was slashed to pieces.

The 23 remaining Tinashis started to overshoot the human colony, but they didn't stop firing for a moment. The jammers were now their targets, and while their emissions had being highly depleted in the last attack, many of them were finishing their recharge cycle and started again to fill space with heavy emissions. It was irrelevant. The Minbari were just too close, but not too close for the anti-ship missiles launched by the retreating Starfuries, for them, the emissions were enough to cover their last approach.

One of the Minbari Tinashi passed close to where the missiles were gathered. The ignition of their engines was detected, but the amount of jamming helped a few missiles reach their target. One last Tinashi was destroyed in a show of unending defiance from the human defenders.

**Drala Fi – Shargoti class War Cruiser**

**Approaching Vega IIA…**

The Battle for Vega was effectively over. Shots against the jamming satellites were still seen for several hours as the Minbari Fleet settled into orbit, but there was nothing else the defenders could do to avoid the Minbari controlling space around the colony.

Aeraan reported as the first vessel entered orbit. "Shai Alyt, our fleet is entering orbit. There are very few jammers still in operation. The shuttles we sent to capture the satellites report that humans are causing them to self-destructing before we are able to."

Ner'shen sighed, "I would have liked one for study, but the humans are not stupid, they won't let us get a hold of one. Tell the transports to keep trying, but destroy the closest ones to secure orbit. Spread the fleet. We don't want to be caught in a position where the human fleet can concentrate its fire. I want our vessels to be able to cover each other from long range. That will make them think twice before attacking."

"Yes Shai Alyt."

"Send some ships to recover the damaged vessels. Bring them here. If the humans counter-attack, they'll probably be hitting them first. Let's avoid that. Disband the 2nd Attack Fleet and merge their units on this one."

"Yes Shai Alyt."

"One last thing Aeraan. Report our victory and inform command that we have a large number of damaged ships. Inform them that those vessels will be kept until they are replaced by reinforcements. We can't decrease our presence here."

"As you command." replied Aeraan bowing.

**Vega IIA**

**Orbital Command and Control - Underground bunker**

**A few minutes later…**

The Minbari had gained orbital superiority, but moral in the command center was still high. They had managed their orbital resources efficiently, and the defense grid had been able to inflict heavy losses to the Minbari advance.

Bligh was half smiling. He knew the defense grid had been destroyed, but the effectiveness of the few GODS he had available had been high to say the least. They had been able to inflict almost the same losses suffered, while being outnumbered almost 8 to 1, something the fleet had not been able to replicate at all. He knew the Minbari would have a very hard time defeating the defense grids of the bigger colonies, and he now knew that the Nova IIIs would allow the fleet to not only replicate what had just happened, but to effectively fight the Minbari on even terms.

"Is everyone in the tunnels?"

"Yes Vice Admiral. All units are in the interconnecting tunnels. The cities are only defended by our automated defenses in the designated choke-points."

"We'll wait to see what they do. We can't do anything against an orbital bombardment, but if they try to land, then we'll move our troop out of the tunnels and make them regret they sat foot on a human colony"

"Yes Sir."

Vega was the first human colony to fall to the Minbari advance. The underground domed cities were mostly emptied of civilians, but a lot of ground units were preparing for a possible invasion. Vega was under siege, but still under human control.

**EAS Aetos – Sagittarius class cruiser**

**Flagship Ranger Expeditionary Force**

**That same time …**

The human Ranger Expeditionary Force was still crossing the com guidance line created by the Pythia detachment towards the Minbari colony of Sh'Lekk'Tha, but they now only needed that line for the return trip, as they already had a clear contact with the Minbari beacon.

The range had decreased, but they were still one day out of reaching jumping positions. The 52 remaining Oracles of the EFNI Fleet were deployed forward ready to launch hyperspace jamming drones and to deploy scout satellites into the Sh'Lekk'Tha system to provide targeting data. Following them was the entire EFNI Sagittarius force composed of 79 vessels and the 8 Nova class dreadnoughts of the Charlie variant deployed as support from the 5th Fleet. One of them was the Legendary EAS Nemesis, the most decorated unit of the Dilgar War, and the one with the highest number of kills in the Fleet. After them came the EIA EAS Delphi. This last vessel was following a slightly different course, as it was only positioning itself in range of the Minbari beacon to operate as an electronic intelligence (ELINT) vessel.

The Minbari had finally made progress in the War. They had sustaining heavy losses, but in their strategic thinking, Vega was the first of many human colonies to fall. The reality was that humanity was ready to teach them a lesson in psychological warfare, and the introduction of so many ships into Minbari controlled space would surely send shockwaves through the Minbari high command.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Notes:**

- Long delay, I know. I can only say I'm sorry, but thankfully it's finally here.

- Jdog1021, thanks for betaing and for keeping tabs after so much time.

- Stormguard, thanks for the help with the design of the MKII Mothership, it's looking good.

- I'm working on a wikia to replace the facebook page, but regretfully, I'm having a hard time learning to manage it. If someone knows how to use it well and is willing to help, please post me.

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

**Hyperspace – Near Tr'Ess'Na – Minbari Federation**

**Valen'Tha Sharlin class war cruiser – Grey council meeting**

**December 11, 2245**

The Grey Council had analyzed the Battle of Vega and had requested the presence of Shai Alyt Ner'Shen. He stood as a holographic image in the center of the Grey Council chamber. He had been giving his account of the battle for several minutes now. His face showed deep focus and his voice profound respect. "I stand by my previous statement. The humans, while highly inferior technologically, are expert warriors and know how to use their technology to the best of their abilities. I should be dead right now; if it weren't for a simple order I gave before the battle…"

Ner'Shen was interrupted. A hooded figure took a step forward and the female voice of the old but still beautiful Alnenn from the worker cast was heard "What do you mean you should be dead? What simple order could have saved you and the rest of the fleet from certain doom?"

Ner'Shen straightened and answered with clarity. "Before attacking the human colony at Vega, every fleet engagement fought against the humans had been lost, and there was very little intelligence to the how, as the defeat of the First Attack Fleet was total. I had no intention of following the same fate. I tested their defenses at Vega three times before launching the attack. Every time, I was sure the forces assigned were enough to defeat the humans, and every time, they defeated and routed us. But those defeats taught me how far the humans were willing to go to defeat us. I got a glimpse of their tactics and I didn't like the fact that they were willing to take the fight into hyperspace."

Murmuring was heard on the Grey council chamber.

Ner'Shen continued "Many of the losses we sustained were done so in that realm or were carried out into or from that realm. The concept of maneuver warfare is highly ingrained in human tactics, and the professionalism they show in applying it," he paused for a second to let his following phrase show some weight. "I could say… it is the envy of every Shai Alyt."

Morann snorted to himself, but he knew the losses they had sustained, and saw the battle footage. The rest of the council, except those from the warrior cast, understood little of what had happened. He knew that he would have probably died in the hyperspace ambush, while losing the entire fleet. His snort was not heard and that allowed Ner'Shen to continue uninterrupted.

"I remember thinking that my crews were not ready to engage humans this way, and I gave the order to jump immediately to normal space if there was any indication of a human ambush on that realm. We approached Vega and were indeed ambush by them in hyperspace. We had losses, but if my order had been delayed in its execution by just 15 seconds, we would have lost the entire First Attack Fleet again, and without having fired a single weapon."

"It is in this sense in which I express my concerns. You have all seen the battle footages. We went from the frying pan and into the fire. The missile ambush in hyperspace would have been enough, but once we were in normal space, they attacked us in a way that almost defeated us. They tricked us into thinking their mass missile attack was their main engagement and we formed our fleet to defend from it. They waited until we had positioned ourselves, to engage us again. They not only launched another missile attack, but also sent a massive fighter wave that obliterated our Nial wings in seconds."

"At that moment, I didn't know if we were going to survive. Their fighters started launching nuclear tipped missiles as well as a huge amount of anti-fighter weapons into our subsystems. Probably someone thought that it wasn't enough, and at the worst possible moment, when our defensive systems were already saturated, they launched a massive capital ship assault. The new human class of warship encountered is weak compare to ours, but are still able to inflict considerable damage. Especially with the numbers they deployed."

"Only the timely arrival from units of the Second Attack Fleet forced the hand and they retreated. It wasn't a route. They expertly reformed their units, and jumped away. They knew they couldn't engage our vessels from those ranges, and they just left."

"They expended massive amounts of resources to destroy us and they just left. If I had been the human commander, I would have stayed to fight. I wouldn't have accepted a retreat with all the resources I had already committed, and in so doing, I would have lost my fleet to the Second Minbari Attack Fleet. But they did. They retreated, and now we have to worry about an expert enemy fleet lurking near us, ready to strike at any moment."

"As I said, the humans may be technologically inferior, but their weapons are able to hurt us, and they have shown an uncanny ability to place themselves in a position to do so."

"We have suffered heavy losses and half of our remaining ships are damaged. I dare not send ships back for repairs until I receive replacements. The human fleet in this area has also received heavy losses, but they retreated, and their numbers are still strong to threaten us." finished Ner'Shen.

Satai Dhaliri of the Religious caste was fast to ask. "Are you expecting an attack?"

"I can't foresee that, Satai." answered Ner'Shen "It is a possibility. For the moment, they are interdicting hyperspace as they have done so since we arrived to their space. They fire nuclear missiles from time to time from outside picket sensor range. I have deployed our pickets outside their normal detonation areas. Only ships trying to enter or exit the system are at risk. In normal space, I have deployed our ships in a way the humans can't concentrate their fire, but that can support each other in case they attack in force. I'm sure we'll be able to detect any approach, and repel any attack, but I do recommend that we keep the ships we currently have, even if they are damaged, at least until we can replace them with new ships from the reserves. I have sent home a few lightly damaged vessels with our wounded, but I request to keep the rest until replacements arrive."

The prideful Morann from the Warrior cast spoke without even considering counsel from the other satais. "You can keep them, and you'll be reinforced as soon as possible. Now, when are you planning on continuing the advance into the human Signet Cluster?"

The information on human hyperspace maps and colony names had been gathered from different human or alien public sources, so while they were not useful to actually navigate, they were at least useful to more or less provide for a general idea of the magnitude of the space they needed to conquer and regretfully, explore. The cost of exploring and battling human forces only at the Vega cluster had been huge. 1,055 capital ships had been lost, so Morann's intention on keeping on the offensive, while they still didn't have a strong foothold on Vega, was ambitious to say the least.

Ner'Shen politely answered. "Satai, there are still several systems in this cluster that need to be explored before we can move into Signet. As battle damaged ships are replaced by reinforcements from the reserves, I will start assigning ships on recon missions throughout this cluster. I would also need to know if we are going to capture the human Vega colony before proceeding further into human space, but even if we capture this colony, we need to heavily reinforce our forces here if we are to avoid the losses we have sustained so far."

"We have received considerable losses, Ner'Shen, but the humans were also heavily damaged. You need to press forward to drive the dagger into their hearts."

"With respects, Satai, I have no targets to attack, only to explore, and it will take considerable amount of time to do so with few ships. If I commit more forces, I will temp the humans to retake Vega. I would strongly recommend to continue into the Signet cluster until we have two full attack fleets operational, anything less, and the humans will more likely gain the upper hand or at least inflict considerable losses. With the amount of colonies the humans are confirmed having, our reserve will run out before securing a fraction of their space."

Morann was about to rebuff, but was interrupted by Rathenn from the religious caste. "Shai Alyt Ner'Shen, we will heed your recommendation on how and when to proceed to Signet. Now, regarding the human Vega colony…" Rathenn paused for a moment as Ner'Shen's head turned to look into another direction. The Shai Alyt turned his head back to the council as if avoiding an interruption.

"Satais, forgive me." said Ner'Shen turning again to the source of the interruption and speaking with a very low voice as not to be heard, but the council was still able to do so. "I asked not to be interrupted." the answer of the trespasser clearly worried Ner'Shen as his face turned to full attention and now spoke with strength. "Is that confirmed?"

As the Shai Alyt made his question, an aide from one of the satais entered the council chambers, but before any word could be spoken, the Shai Alyt addressed the council. "We have lost contact with the colony of Sh'Lekk'Tha. Sensors reports confirmed heavy jamming before contact was lost. I have a detachment four hours from the colony. I will order it to return…"

"Do that, but concentrate on securing the human front!" ordered Shakat form the warrior caste. "There are two detachments from the second defense fleet protecting the colony. That is their job. You have yours. We'll re-contact you as soon as the situation is resolved."

Shai Alyt Ner'Shen bowed to the council before his image faded away.

Shakat on the other hand, turned to see the arriving aide. It was his. "Report!"

"Total loss of contact. We can't bypass the jamming, Satai. The emissions are consistent with human patterns. The Second Defense Fleet Shai Alyt has ordered two battle groups from the garrison at Tr'Ess'Na to deploy to Sh'Lekk'Tha and has requested assistance to reinforce his garrison in case the humans come in force." replied Shakat's aide.

"Order that both the third defense fleet at Valusha and the fourth at Ralafa to send each one a battle group to reinforce the second at Tr'Ess'Na. Inform the fifth defense fleet units at Eshar and Pagati to be ready in case they are required to redeploy near Minbar." ordered Shakat. He turned to the rest of the council for acknowledgement. Imperceptible nods confirmed his decision. "Go and relay our orders."

"Yes, Satai." answered his aide before bowing and leaving the chambers.

Dhaliri from the religious caste asked with slight tension in his voice. "Shakat, can our forces at Sh'Lekk'Tha defend the colony?"

The warrior answered without a second thought. "You have seen how humans fight. I haven't seen them make many tactical mistakes. If they engage the two detachments protecting the colony, it's because they know they can defeat them. Eighteen ships, even Sharlins, are not enough to stop them if they come in force."

Solnier from the worker caste pointed a terrifying fact. "All our supplies for the human front are being gathered there. If we lose them, the entire invasion time-table will be delayed for months. Aren't there any other ships available to reinforce them?"

Coplann from the warrior caste responded this time. "Without counting transports, the closest ships are in the detachment Ner'Shen spoke about. It is 4 hours away. There is another detachment from the reserves en route to the front that is programmed to resupply at Sh'Lekk'Tha in seven hours. There is nothing else nearby. We will have to wait to see if the humans engage, and if that's so, then to see if our two detachments are enough. Shakat's orders for defense fleet redeployment is everything we can do for now."

**Hyperspace – Near Sh'Lekk'Tha – Minbari Federation**

**Earth Force Naval Intelligence (EFNI) - Ranger Expeditionary Force (REF)**

**Earth Force 5th Fleet`s 294th Nova Dreadnought Detachment**

**A few minutes earlier…**

The 8 Nova class dreadnoughts from the 5th Fleet and the 79 Sagittarius class cruisers from the REF were coasting behind 52 Oracle class cruisers and hundreds of drones that were entering the Sh'Lekk'Tha system's hyperspace heliosphere boundary.

The drones being used by the humans were very small unmanned craft that were mostly used for reconnaissance operations, but in this case, the Rangers were also employing them as a diversionary tool. They were mimicking the speed and emissions pattern of an approaching fleet, letting the Minbari think they were dealing with a far stronger force. The drones were also equipped with jammers. Those installed were nowhere near as powerful as those from dedicated jammers or warships, but they were still messing with Minbari hyperspace sensors.

During the first engagement with the Minbari at VCB-165, Minbari forces had been able to detect the human approach and even attack a human warship in hyperspace. The human vessels had detected the powerful emissions from the Minbari Tinashis before they attacked, but had not been aware that the Minbari had been tracking them through other means, at least not until careful examination of that battle's sensor logs had determined another type of emissions during the event. Those same emissions had been detected by interdiction operations every time they approached VCB-165 to fire missiles during the initial Minbari incursions into the Vega cluster.

Those emissions originated from hyperspace sensor satellites. The emissions were nowhere near as powerful as Minbari capital ships, and were easily confused with hyperspace distortions if not near them, but once identified; the humans knew what to search for and were dealing with the situation swiftly.

Human jamming was strong, and was most likely blinding the Minbari garrison, but they were taking no chances. Four drones locked into the four sensor satellite emissions and didn't stop accelerating until their mass was stopped by theirs. They met briefly before succumbing to kinetic forces. Minbari eyes in hyperspace went blind.

The lead Oracle detachment opened a total of eight vortexes in different parts of the solar system from which a similar number of spy satellites passed through. Those ships closed their jump points and accelerated away towards the Minbari beacon of Tr'Ess'Na, the only one in sensor range of Sh'Lekk'Tha. The detachment ships were spaced out by thousands of kilometers to avoid losses to a hyperspace interception. Drones acted as pickets in their forward vector to detect Minbari ships in order to avoid combat and secure the infiltration.

The rest of the Oracles continued at a slower pace towards Sh'Lekk'Tha, far behind the first detachment. They waited patiently for the tactical teams to analyze spy satellite sensor relays. The Sh'Lekk'Tha system was lightly populated, but the powerful sensor emissions emanating from the Sharlins protecting the system, quickly identified the planetary body housing the Minbari colony.

The 46 remaining Oracles wasted no time and accelerated towards their target. The same number of vortexes opened all around the Minbari colony. Several drones, a spy satellite and a jammer, emerged from each of them. Those deployed near the colony were greeted by the Minbari defenses and were wiped out immediately, but those farther away started fulfilling their objectives. Jamming emissions started filling local space severely hampering Minbari sensors; spy satellites filtered tactical data into the units in hyperspace and relayed back orders to the drones in normal-space to head forward to reconnoiter harder to detect areas.

Sh'Lekk'Tha was hardly considered a colony. Just a few thousand inhabited the planet. The Minbari used it mostly as an ambassadorial world. Any contact with other civilizations was done through or at Sh'Lekk'Tha, and considering the low level of contact they maintained with other civilizations, it was surprising that there were any Minbari present at all. The fact that a route toward Vorlon space was only three beacons away, gave the required justification to maintain the insignificant colony.

Since the start of the war with the Earth Alliance, the world had become a hub for logistical operations and the last outpost for ships heading to the front. While the normal military presence was limited to less than a dozen old fighters of the Tishat class and only a single defense satellite, the switch from an ambassadorial back-water world to a logistical war-hub, had seen an increase in defense units. 18 Sharlins with their corresponding Nials, and 8 defense satellites uprated the defense category of the colony.

**EAS Nemesis – Nova class dreadnought**

**5th Fleet – 18th Battle Group – 73rd Group**

**294th Detachment Flagship**

Few ships in Earth Force had special markings, it was normally against regulations; few exceptions were made and the Nemesis was one of them. With the highest kill ratio in the fleet, kills attained during the Dilgar War, the ship, along with its captain, had attained legendary status. The crew took advantage of this situation to mark the vessel with a symbol of the proverbial ferocity and toughness of ship and crew.

The Jolly Roger in the bow of the vessels clearly identified the Nemesis in the eight ship Nova class dreadnought detachment.

The EAS Nemesis' reputation was second to none, but while it still possessed the highest kill ratio in the fleet, there was something lacking in its bridge. Captain Joe Tennant was nowhere to be seen, nor was his cult idolized Maori ceremonial grass skirt. The reason was that the famous Captain was no longer a Captain, but the Admiral of the Second Fleet. He had been reluctant to leave the Nemesis. But playing with 512 Dreadnoughts of the Nova III class instead of just 1 of the Nova class was too tempting to reject. He was also allowed to select and name his Nova III command ship. He named the Flag Ship of the Second Fleet the EAS Helen, which the Cypria, an epic of ancient Greek literature, depicted as Nemesis' daughter. For him, it was just fitting.

Seating in the command chair of the EAS Nemesis was Simon Anderson, the ship's former XO under Tennant during the Dilgar War. He was now the legendary ship's captain.

Anderson was relating operational orders that came from the flag bridge, where the Detachment's Commodore, Claude O'Keeffe, was coordinating the attack with the REF Sagittarius.

"Targets identified. 18 Minbari dreadnoughts, 9 defense satellites and multiple fighters. The Battle-net has already assigned primary and secondary targets. Fighters are authorized for transition! Release them! We attack immediately!" Anderson informed his crew.

Anderson saw the Minbari deployment in the holographic display. The 18 Minbari Sharlins were in geostationary orbit above what he supposed was the colony's main settlement, but they were clearly not there protecting the colony, but the massive gathering of containers which represented the entire supply reserves for the forces deployed at the front. The Sharlins were among the containers, while the 9 defense satellites were in a slightly higher orbit, protecting the logistical effort. In a lower orbit, below the forces gathered in orbit, were dozens of transports critical for the logistical operation.

With orders assigned, the bridge crew acted immediately.

288 Nova class Starfuries launched from the dreadnoughts and assumed escort formation. The Nova detachment accelerated forward beyond the Sagittarius and a few seconds later the 79 old missile cruisers started ripple firing all of their missiles. The Novas opened up their jump points as close to the supply depot as the technology allowed. 4,424 missiles went through followed closely by 288 fighters.

With human jammers and multiple drones operating several thousand up to hundreds of thousands of kms from the colony and all around it, every Minbari unit engaging them as best as the current range allowed, was not in the best position to respond to the 8 jump points that opened up in front of the defense satellites. None the less, as soon as the missiles exited the vortexes at maximum speed, the firepower of the defending forces was felt immediately.

Missiles were exploding in front of the transitioning Starfuries. The Electro-Magnetic-Spectrum/Search-Track-and-Lock (EMS/STL) system installed in the Starfuries and telemetry from spy satellites and drones already in normal space, fed the battle management systems in the human fighters.

"Tally-ho! Contacts. Hundreds plus. 12 o'clock low. 200 klicks out." stated one of Nemesis' squadrons pilot.

Immediately after, the squadron commander replied. "You all have your anti-ship and anti-fighter targets assigned. Time-on-target volley all missiles now!"

The jump points had not yet closed, and many fighters had not yet completed the transition, when the forward Starfury squadrons released first their anti-capital ship missiles against the defense satellites and Sharlins to later accelerate at maximum burn towards the depot dumping the anti-fighter ordnance against Nials and Tishats.

The Minbari fighters were in a bad position. The number of fighters from both sides was almost equal, and at those ranges, the Minbari still had the advantage, but the fact that several units were deploy to intercept the jammers and drones deployed by the Oracles, their formations were not in a position to concentrate firepower as the Starfuries could.

While fighters from both sides played their game, which was clearly being won by the Starfuries, the big boys from the Minbari side were decimating the human missile onslaught. However, numbers were against them and the first missiles impacted the gravitic fields deployed by the defense satellites. One missile after another reduced the field strength, leading to the destruction of the Powerful Minbari weapons. The 9 defense satellites and their corresponding firepower ceased to exist.

The missiles continued forward with their engines bright white at maximum power. Shattered pieces of previously destroyed missiles were the first to arrive at the depot. They avenged their destruction when many containers were destroyed or damaged by their accumulated kinetic strength.

The first missiles to arrive at the depot had done so at the cost of thousands of others destroyed, but the first to beat the Minbari second line of defense seemed to be ineffective. The missile impacted directly at the bow of a war cruiser, but the gravitic barrier deployed by the stationary ship was enough to save it. The thermal flash and neutron particles damaged the forward section of the vessel. Its sensors went blind for a moment, and that gave enough breathing room for several other missiles to reach it. After 4 more hits, the Sharlin blew up with the assistance of its quantum gravimetric reactor.

Several containers were obliterated when the first Sharlin died. Missiles that were en-route to the destroyed vessel immediately reassigned themselves and change directions towards new targets.

Many of the human cigar shaped weapons continued their approach, including those launched by the fighters, but before they reached their targets, a new set of jump points, opened by EFNI's Sagittarius, released a total of 576 missiles launched by the 8 Nova dreadnoughts.

The Minbari garrison was doomed. Their firepower was considerable, but the number of missiles approaching was just too much. A second Sharlin soon followed the first, and the situation soon cascaded out of control. The remaining or close-by Nials and Tishats tried desperately to shoot down the missiles, but fail miserably as the Starfuries soon taught them that avoiding combat against a space superiority fighter was a mistake.

As the Minbari fighter wings dwindle in number, a mirror situation was reflected with the capital ships, which soon fell to the still numerous approaching weapons. Fighter launched anti-capital-ship missiles proved almost ineffective, as their power were not enough to overpower the Minbari gravitic fields, but with the assistance of the bigger and more powerful capital ship launched missiles, the Minbari war cruisers' fate were already determined.

The last Sharlin exploded without much fanfare, while many human missiles still remained. The weapons reassigned themselves to bypass the depot and hit the now desperately moving transports. All were destroyed.

The remaining human missiles turned into the depot and soon caused devastation, but with the last detonation, it was clear the something more was required to be done in order to manage the still thousands of containers remaining.

"This is detachment actual to all ships. I know that what I'm about to ask goes against our orders of attacking with missiles and fighters without risking our capital ships, but the targets presented to us are too numerous to engage with our remaining fighters. The strategic value of the destruction of this depot justifies the risk. I have ordered the Ranger Sagittarius to return to Earth Alliance Space, but we are going in. Charge all weapons and prepare for transition" ordered Commodore, O'Keeffe.

Captain Anderson just grinned before ordering his crew. "You heard the man people, and I want the Nemesis to be the first to enter Minbari space with all guns blazing. Punch me a hole in hyperspace and let's teach the Minbari what this heavy handed lady can do!"

Minbari Nials that were returning from engaging human drones were still battling with the Starfuries among the containers, when eight vortexes opened up.

The Nemesis was the first human warship to enter Minbari space, and its vortex had not yet closed, when the frontal plasma mortars started firing with intensity against Minbari containers.

The rest of the detachment followed suit, and when all vessels had made the transition, the turrets acquired a single target each and released a powerful detachment wide alpha strike.

Heavy plasma rounds after heavy plasma rounds obliterated any container they got in contact with. Closer containers were literary pierced from side to side by the powerful human bolts, but even if the Nova detachment firepower released hundreds of bolts per second, it momentarily looked as if there wasn't going to be an end to the destruction. Such was the size of the Minbari supply depot.

The human dreadnoughts systematically laid waste to any container within range, and while a single bolt was able to pierce a container, many more were fired to guarantee total destruction. The alpha strike charge of the dual plasma cannons were used in the first few seconds of the attack and soon only three to four turrets were able to be operated with the power output of the Nova fusion reactors which quickly reduced the firepower thrown against the depot.

It took almost ten full minutes for the human warships to completely destroy the containers deployed at the Sh'Lekk'Tha supply depot, time the Starfuries used to completely eradicate every Minbari fighter.

Combat operations ceded space to rescue operations. Shuttles from the dreadnoughts were dispatched to pick ejected pilots, and the few remaining Starfuries were recovered to prepare the detachment for hyperspace transition.

When the last shuttle returned to its dreadnought, the humans released a single communication buoy to then open up their jump point to exit into hyperspace.

The remaining drones and jammers left at Sh'Lekk'Tha were self-destructed, leaving only the spy satellites surrounding the Minbari colony. The Comm buoy was activated, and a message started repeating in Minbari language, a message that intended to either resolve the conflict peacefully or to force the Minbari to retreat through psychological warfare. It repeated the following:

"_We don't know you and you don't know us, yet we find ourselves at war. This war erupted from a misunderstanding and continues through the inability of our races to resolve it peacefully. Your continued aggression in our space has prompted us to respond in kind. Our warships are entering your space in heavy numbers. We have destroyed your military forces in this system, but we have spared your colony. We have no intention in harming innocent civilians nor do we seek to continue to spread this bloodshed._

_We have stated before that we want this to end peacefully in the hopes of forging a better future for both our people, but your continued rejection to our communication attempts have forced us to move in force into your space. It will be your decision if we escalate this further or if we try a diplomatic solution to this conflict. _

_If there is no response, this will be the last time we attempt to contact you, and we will understand that your will is to end this with the use of force. If such is the case, we will escalate military action in a way that guarantees that you will never be a threat to our people." _

The message ended as abruptly as it began, but it was very clear. The Earth Alliance wanted a peaceful solution to the conflict, but at the same time had, diplomatically as it could, issued an ultimatum. The last part was a bluff, but a very well-orchestrated one. Earth Force had allowed the Minbari to glimpse the approach of numerous human vessels before destroying Minbari forces and infrastructure at Sh'Lekk'Tha.

The Minbari didn't know that the massive numbers of ships were actually drones emitting the sensor profile of capital ships, and they also didn't know that Earth Force had expended every ounce of real firepower to destroy just 18 Minbari capital ships and 9 defense satellites.

The reality for the Minbari was that the Earth Alliance had demonstrated the ability to fight and win against them, and not only they were stopping their assault in human space, but have now deployed a strong force against them in their own space. Minbari colonies were at risk. The last part of the message, where humans were bold enough to show their intention to escalate military action to guarantee that the Minbari would never become a threat to their people, was certain to send strong shockwaves to the Minbari religious and worker castes. The sparing of the Sh'Lekk'Tha colony was also a warning message of what was expected at Vega. If the Minbari dared attack the human colony they now blockaded, the message made it clear of what would follow on a second attack if the Minbari defenses were beaten.

The human 5th Fleet's Nova class dreadnought detachment and EFNI's Sagittarius were returning along with the Pythia detachment Oracles to human space, while 52 Oracle class cruisers had bypass Sh'Lekk'Tha and were heading in to infiltrate Minbari space.


End file.
